Going to Hell
by Riana Salvatore
Summary: Sequel to Some Nights. Mary Gilbert is trying to find a way to return Stefan from Klaus's control, but will growing feelings for her best friend destroy what was once an epic love? Stefan/Female Jeremy/Anna
1. Going to Find You

Two months had passed. I got up and looked at the time. It was Elena's birthday. I then realized what the problem was. I shook Anna awake.

"We need to get dressed now." I told her as I began to look for my pants.

"Tell me again why we're both working at the Grill?" She asked as she looked through her dresser.

"Because we have bills to pay and I don't want to ruin my trust fund." I pointed out.

Elena then came in as we were in the middle of changing. The downside of living in a house of three teenage (even though one is a vampire) girls was that no one knocked.

"We need some privacy." I declared.

"I just wanted to see if you were up because Matt called." She explained after closing the door. "You two are late."

"We know that." I replied.

Within a few minutes, the two of us stepped out, both dressed in our uniforms. There were definitely worse things that we could wear to work.

We headed to the Grill in my car. We were both waitresses. Technically we weren't supposed to be, but Mayor Lockwood specifically gave exception to us because of our current living situation. I was trying to get Ric to be our guardian. Technically, he was the only parental figure that I had left since he wasn't divorced to Isobel.

I saw Caroline as I was preparing heading into work.

"So is Elena still trying to bail on her party?" She asked.

"I don't know." I remarked. "We talked for about five seconds this morning."

"Well I do have something else." She declared.

"Another lead?" I questioned.

"It was an animal attack in Memphis." Caroline explained. "It doesn't mean that Klaus and Stefan are involved in it, though."

"I would put money on them being involved." I stated. "Can you have her drop it off?"

We walked inside and prepared for our shifts. The restaurant was just opening, so we weren't too late.

"There you are." Matt replied. "I need you to switch sections with me."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because Caroline and Tyler just sat down in mine and I don't feel like waiting on my ex-girlfriend!" He answered. It sounded like he wasn't over her.

I sighed and headed outside. It was a beautiful day and I wished that I didn't have to be working, but I would get a break later.

"Hey, guys." I greeted the two of them. "Can I get you anything?"

"Did Matt ask you to switch sections with him?" Caroline questioned before she looked at Tyler. "He thinks that we're dating."

"So does my mother." Tyler added.

"Wait, you two aren't dating?" I asked.

"No we're just friends. There's no way that we'd ever work as a couple." Caroline told me.

I got an hour break and I knew that I needed to use it to go to the boarding house. I walked inside and began to look for Damon. I went into his room and he wasn't there.

"Hi." He greeted me. I turned around and saw more of Damon than I ever wanted to. I blushed and turned around.

"You know you should really learn to knock." He quipped. "What if I was indecent? So what can I do for you, Working Girl?"

"I got another lead from Sheriff Forbes." I explained.

"You mean you got another dead-end." He countered as he came over and took it from me. Thankfully he was wearing a towel. Seeing him naked knowing that he had seen me naked really wasn't that fulfilling.

"You don't know that." I argued. "Stop being so pessimistic."

"How about you stop being so optimistic?" He challenged. "Or maybe I should try it? This is going to be the one place that we find Stefan and can convince him to come home."

"Fuck you." I told him as I headed to the doorway. "I'm going back to work."

When I got back, I needed to vent and I decided Anna would be the person I vented to.

"It feels like I have to fight with Damon every time I bring him a lead." I stated between putting some fries in my mouth.

"Did you ever think that maybe Damon doesn't want to find him?" She asked.

"That doesn't make any sense though." I pointed out. "Stefan is in this mess because of him. If I had gotten Elena into a mess like this, I would do whatever I could to get her back. If I didn't have to work, I would go there myself."

"Well I don't understand how Damon thinks." She replied. "I do know that going looking for him for him would be a bad idea since Klaus thinks you're dead and might try to kill you again."

"So do you have any idea what I should wear to Elena's party tonight?" I asked. "Her 18th birthday is kind of a big deal, even though Bonnie can't be here."

"Well I do think that not a lot of people will be paying much attention to you." She pointed out. "Is this going to be one of those nights where you get drunk?"

"That's pretty much every night that I don't have to work the next morning." I pointed out. Though, I wasn't acting the same as when my parents died. "It works even better since I found the perfect hangover cure."

"That's probably not healthy." She replied. "For someone who doesn't want to be a vampire, you're tempting fate a lot."

"I was talking about vervain." I stated in shock. She looked at me in surprise. "It turns out that it cures hangovers. Who knew?"

"Well I'm just glad that I don't get hangovers." She remarked.

That night, I decided to wear a red and black plaid sleeveless dress with black socks and heels. I really wished that I could have shown Stefan what he was missing. Elena was upstairs. Damon was going to help her make an entrance. We were currently waiting for her. I already had a glass of bourbon in my hand when Anna came over to me.

"I got you something." She told me.

"You're supposed to get something for the birthday girl, not her sister." I quipped.

"Well this is something that I figured that you'd want more." She replied as she pulled out my necklace. "Damon found this and gave it to me to give back to you."

"Thank you." I told her softly. It was at that moment that I couldn't help but realize how beautiful she was. She then behind me and placed it around my neck, just like Stefan had when he had first given it to me.

"So what did you get for Elena?" She asked me.

"Oh, I got her this nice perfume that she wanted." I explained, no longer in my daze. I was pretty sure that I was already beginning to get drunk. "So have you really been with anyone since Blair graduated?"

"Nope, it's been kind of slow for me." She replied. "Another part of being a vampire is that you can get really horny. Sometimes I just want to lock the door and just touch myself."

"I know that feeling." I admitted. "Should we be talking about this right now?"

"I don't why we shouldn't. It's something that every teenager does." She pointed out.

"You're not a teenager." I countered.

"My body is." She reminded me. "It's actually quite the downside. I'm in a perpetual of puberty. It is a good reason to wait if you do want to be like me."

"I just have a feeling that it's not going to be something that I end up having any control over when it happens." I stated. "I don't want to be like Isobel."

"You will never be like Isobel." She promised me. "You know I think that you could use fun right about now. Let's dance."

She grabbed me and began to spin me around. There was no denying that dancing with her was always fun. I guess one of the best parts was that she loved to do it and she loved to do it without me asking first. I really did feel like I was gliding along the clouds.

So, after we finished dancing to strange European pop songs about sex, I decided to get another drink. It was then that I noticed that there was a stoner group. I also found Caroline.

"Is that my sister over there?" I asked.

"Yes, and I'm pretty sure that's Matt over there with her." Caroline stated. I couldn't believe that my sister was a druggie. I supposed that it did explain why she was eating so much. "I've driven him to drugs."

"And apparently Bonnie being gone and Jenna dying has done the same to Elena." I replied.

"Hey guys." Matt said with a chuckle as he walked over to us. I wasn't sure if I should do anything. It was Elena's birthday and she could get high if she wanted to. The biggest issue was that she was making it difficult to maintain a buzz. It was kind of like when Stefan was having his blood issues. She would definitely be able to eat as much cake as she wanted.

I also noticed that while Caroline and Tyler weren't dating, she definitely wanted to date him because she compelled the school slut to leave Tyler alone. I couldn't believe that Tyler had brought her to the party even he couldn't get herpes as a werewolf. Did he really want sex that bad?

"So what are you drinking tonight?" Tina asked me. She had a cup of beer in her hand.

"I think it's Jim Bean or something." I replied. "I honestly don't care about what's on the label as long as what's in the bottom tastes good?"

"Have you ever thought about going to Alcoholics Anonymous?" She questioned.

"I'm not an alcoholic. I just like to drink." I stated. "Honestly, I'm no worse than Ric or Damon."

"I'm pretty sure that both of them are alcoholics too." She remarked.

"I don't need anyone to judge me, especially someone who's had a DUI." I pointed out.

"I've been to the meetings and while I don't consider myself to be an alcoholic. I think that you are." She replied.

"I don't need to hear any of this anymore." I replied as I charged upstairs.

I wasn't an alcoholic. I just had a lot of issues because nearly every member of my family was dead. In my opinion, I was handling it pretty well because a lot of people would have gone insane. I opened the door to Damon's room because he was picking up his girlfriend that I was pretty sure that he felt nothing for.

"This room is occupied!" Caroline shouted. I walked in to see that she was chowing on a blood bag. "Sorry, I thought were some random."

"What's going on with you and Tyler?" I asked.

"Nothing's going on between us." She replied.

"Caroline, you compelled a girl that was going to have sex with him to go away." I stated. "You like him. It's okay to like him."

"We're two different species. We're all wrong for each other." She declared.

"All I am hearing is reasons why not." I remarked before I noticed something strange about the room. "Has that whiteboard always been there?

"I don't think so." Caroline replied before we turned to look at the back of it.

I was shocked. It was basically a list of every lead that I had given him, and some other ones that I hadn't, but they were pretty much all animal attacks. Pretty much all of them were on the East Coast, going as far as Tennessee.

"What is all of this?" Caroline asked.

"It's what I've been giving Damon." I replied. "He's been looking for Stefan without me. I can't believe that he's been looking without me."

Needless to say, I was pissed when he finally got back.

"What are you doing in here?" He asked.

"When were you going to show me this?" I countered.

"It's nothing but a bunch of dead ends." He replied.

"Why didn't you tell me that you were keeping track of Klaus's victims?" I yelled.

"Because they're not Klaus's victims, they're Stefan's." He explained. No, there was no way that Stefan could have killed all of those people.

"What?" I responded in shock.

"Stefan's flipped the switch." He added. "He's killing people and he's liking it. I just got back from him killing my girlfriend. He doesn't want to be found."

"No, that can't be true." I denied.

"He's gone, Mary, and the sooner that you accept it the better." He told me. "Now get out of my room."

I walked out of his room and made sure to grab another bottle. I had to find Anna because she was my ride home. I also couldn't help but wonder if Elena had gotten home safe. I'd never been high before but I was pretty sure that you weren't supposed to operate a vehicle while you were high. I found Anna was downstairs.

"You look like you're having a rough night." She commented.

"Well Damon basically doesn't even care about finding Stefan anymore and Elena is a druggie and people are judging me for drinking. Have you seen Ric?" I asked.

"He said that he wasn't going to be staying over anymore." She replied. "He wanted to move on with his own life."

"You see this is why we need to have jobs." I explained. "We're the only ones that can take care of ourselves."

"So are you going to stop looking for Stefan?" She asked. "I mean you still love him, don't you?"

"I don't know." I answered. "I mean, yes, I love him, but I don't know if he's going to come back ever."

"Well maybe we should go home and sleep on it." She suggested before she took me to her car.

Once we got home, I noticed that Elena and Matt were eating ice cream in the kitchen. It was a little bit funny to see.

A little later, I was getting changed for bed while Anna was brushing her teeth. I always wondered if vampires liked to have their fangs nice and sharp or if she did it just to seem human.

I then noticed that my phone was ringing. It was from an unknown number, but I answered it anyway.

"Hello?" I answered. There was no response. "Who is this? Stefan? Stefan if this is you, I want you to know that I still believe in you and I still love you. I won't stop until we can be together again."

So it was not Mary's birthday obviously, but there was still the scene with the necklace. She's fallen for Anna even if she can't admit it. Please don't forget to review.


	2. Going to the Mountains

I woke up and realized that I needed to take things into my own hands. If Damon wasn't going to find Stefan, I would have to do it myself.

I put on a white tee with thin black stripes and white shorts. I went downstairs to see Anna having breakfast.

"So what are we doing today since we don't have work?" She asked.

"We're going to find Stefan." I announced.

"How do you plan on doing that?" She asked.

"Well I'm going to make Damon talk." I replied. "You know he called me last night while you were getting ready for bed."

"What did he say?" She questioned.

"He didn't say anything, but I know it was him because I had Sheriff Forbes trace the call and it came from a payphone in Tennessee." I explained. "So do wanna help me?"

"I don't have anything better to do." She stated.

We went to the boarding house to find Damon.

"You won't give up, will you?" He asked.

"You've been dodging my calls since last night." I pointed out.

"I'm busy burying my girlfriend, so make it quick." He ordered.

"Stefan called me last night. I had Sheriff Forbes trace the call." I explained.

"He is binge-drinking on coeds." Damon stated. "Stefan is gone, Mary."

"He cared enough to call me." I argued. "That means I need to care enough to bring him back."

"Count me out." He told me.

I sighed as the two of us went out the door.

"So now what are we doing?" Anna asked.

"We're going to see Ric." I explained.

We went to his apartment and he opened the door. He was not wearing a shirt.

"I thought you were Damon." He declared.

"I need you to tell me what you know about Stefan and Tennessee." I remarked.

"I don't want to be involved in this." He said to me.

"I'm pretty sure that you know everything that Damon knows." I replied.

"Why don't you ask Damon?" He challenged.

"I already did and he won't tell me anything." I explained.

"You know it's not safe for you since Klaus thinks you're dead." Ric responded. "Stefan's off the rails anyway."

"He still has his humanity because he called me." I answered. "He can be saved."

"Why do you have to be the one to save him?" He challenged. I already knew my answer to that planned.

"Because if I don't, who will?" I questioned. "Stefan wouldn't give up on me, so I'm not going to give up on him."

"They're looking for werewolves." Ric relented. Now I had to find Tyler. "They were last seen in Memphis."

"We need to go to the Grill." I announced.

The first person that I noticed was that Matt was there, which wasn't that surprising.

"What are you doing here on your day off?" He asked me.

"I wanted to see if Tyler was here." I explained before I noticed that he was at a table. I walked over to him. "I need your help."

"Before I say anything, do you know where Caroline is?" He asked.

"I haven't seen her." I answered. "But I need to talk to you about werewolves. Do you know if there is anywhere that werewolves like to gather?"

"A lot of us keep to ourselves and lock ourselves up." He explained. "But there are werewolves that like to gather in places where they don't have to do that. They want somewhere they can enjoy."

"Can you be more specific?" Anna asked.

"Mountains, state parks, deserts, basically anywhere with a lot of open space." The werewolf told us.

"Do you know of any in Tennessee?" I inquired.

"Give me your phone. I can show you." He offered.

"Thanks, I'm sorry for asking so much." I apologized.

"It's no problem." He stated. "As Caroline likes to remind me, Stefan's only in this mess because I bit Damon."

Well there was that combined with the fact that we were unable to kill Klaus, but then Damon would be dead. The two of us then went over to Ric who was at the bar with a drink.

"Okay, I found the place, so we need to get going." I told him.

"Are you seriously going to chase a whole bunch of werewolves on a full moon?" He asked. "Damon's right. You are insane."

"We can be out of there before the moon is full." I responded.

"If you don't come with us, we'll go by ourselves." Anna added. "We'd be a lot safer if you came."

"Alright, fine, let's just go." He relented. I was pretty sure that he muttered something about protecting his students.

"So have you ever been to the Smoky Mountains before?" Anna asked.

"No, I've never been to Tennessee before." I explained. "Except for this one time in Bristol that we briefly crossed the border that is. Have you?"

"I actually lived in the music city for a few years." She explained. "I got to see Patsy Cline perform at the Bluebird Café."

"I'm really not that well-versed in country music." I admitted.

After a few hours, we arrived in the Smokies. We got out of the car and began to hike along a trail that would lead us to the campsite that Tyler pointed out. I was glad that I hadn't decided to wear heels. I had a feeling that my feet would still hurt after I was done.

"So in a couple hours, the full moon should rise over that ridge." Ric explained. "That's where the pack should be."

"You were a boy scout, weren't you?" I asked with a smile.

"Shut up." He muttered.

"I can't believe that you were a boy scout and a vampire hunter." Anna teased before she had a sip of the vervain water.

Ric then opened his backpack to reveal a lot of weapons.

"Whoa." I commented looking the stash over.

"We're not going bird watching." He reminded me. He then handed me a grenade. "Here take this."

"Vervain grenade?" He asked.

"Wolfsbane." He corrected.

"Since we're exchanging gifts, you should take this." I remarked as I took the ring out of my pocket.

"John gave you that to give to your children." He stated.

"Do I look like I'm pregnant?" I shot back. "Don't answer that. Anyway, right now, I don't have anyone else to give it to, so you're the best recipient."

"Just take it." Anna ordered.

"We don't want you to die before happy hour." I added. He took the ring and we began to walk forward. I turned to face the river before suddenly I was pushed into it. I looked up and saw Damon. The water was only four feet deep, so there was no chance of drowning in it. "Damon, what the hell? Did you tell him?"

"Thanks for the tip, man." Damon stated.

"You didn't think that I would let you two do this alone, did you?" Ric asked.

"Why does everyone keep forgetting how old I really am?" Anna responded in frustration.

"Because you act the same age as her." Damon remarked. He then caught her by surprise and threw her into the water with me. Why did he keep doing that?

After a few minutes, we were still in the water. Both of us were upset for different reasons.

"Alright, get out of the water you two." Damon ordered.

"No I'm not getting out because you'll make us go home." I replied. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a vervain needle that they planned to use on her.

"You two are both acting like idiots." Damon stated.

"That's a lot of talk from someone who tried to kill an Original without instructions." Anna argued.

"All three of us are acting like idiots." Ric piped in. "You're acting like children even."

"You might not understand because you gave up on him, but I haven't." I declared.

"I didn't give up on him, Mary. I just decided to face reality." Damon argued as he came closer. "Now get out of the water."

"You're going to have to make me." I told him. I hoped this wouldn't last much longer because I was starting to feel a little cold.

"What's your plan? Are you going to walk into werewolf territory and wait for Stefan to show up." Damon asked as he walked into the water and closer to us."

"You know maybe he's right." Anna stated. "Maybe it's a bad idea to do this."

"No, you're supposed to be on my side." I replied. "We've never been this close. We can get him back. I'm not leaving."

"Klaus thinks that you're dead." Damon pointed out. "What's he going to do when he finds out you're not? It's also a full moon."

"We can find him before the full moon." I said. "Damon, please we both love him."

"Fine." Damon relented. "But we're getting out before the moon's full."

"Thank you." I agreed as I stepped out of the water. I then shivered a little.

"Here, this will help warm you up." Anna replied as she started to rub my back.

"Good thinking, so girl on girl is always good." Damon quipped. "Why don't you just have her carry you?"

"Damon, I can do without your sense of humor." I remarked. I still did blush. Anna blushed as well.

"We have about a mile left." Ric stated.

I still wasn't entirely sure what I would say to Stefan. It would seem that after a full two months away, I would, but I didn't. Maybe I did at one point, but I probably forgot it in a drunken haze. All I knew was that I needed to convince him to come home.

"The sun's about to set." Damon noted.

"Yeah, but the moon won't be full for a little while." Anna pointed out. "We still have time to do this. Wait. What do we do if Klaus is around?"

"The goal is to get Stefan away from him." I declared. I wasn't sure how.

It was then that I heard some branches cracking. Ric raised his crossbow and we saw a man with a bloody face. He looked dazed and confused.

"Stay where you are." Ric commanded him. Maybe we should have asked his name first.

"Vampire!" The man declared as he ran at Damon. I stood in front of Anna, even though I couldn't do anything to protect her. He pushed Damon against a tree but Ric shot him with an arrow and I threw Damon the wolfsbane grenade. Damon pulled the pin and it blew up, burning our mystery wolf.

"Let me guess: hybrid." Damon replied. Is that what they were doing? Was Klaus trying to turn werewolves into hybrids? I supposed it made sense, but why did it take so long? Damon chained him to the tree.

"Do we have anything else?" Anna asked. I took out some ropes and began pouring the water on them.

"Ric, take these." I instructed. Damon grabbed them and pulled his hand away. "I said Ric!"

Ric then tied him up with the rope. The only question that remained was what to do with him.

"That's the last of the vervain." He explained. "I don't think that we have enough to hold him or that we'll make it to the ridge before the full moon. It might be a good idea to go back."

"Maybe we can get him to talk." I suggested as I slapped him awake. Suddenly he started to scream as his bones started to crack. "Is he turning?"

"That's impossible. It's the moon's not full yet." Damon announced.

"Obviously things are different with hybrids." Anna stated. "I vote for getting the fuck out of here."

"These ropes won't hold a wolf." Ric explained. It looked like running was the best option. It was very unfortunate because it looked like the mission would another failure. Anna grabbed me and we began to run but we ended up coming face-to-face with the wolf.

"Go, I'll lead him away." Damon replied. He went in a different direction and we began to head back to the car. Damon did have his own car, so if he didn't get bitten, he would be able to make it home.

"Damn it, we didn't even get to see Stefan." I stated in frustration after we were on the road.

"I think it would be better to focus on Damon right now." Ric declared. I did hope that he could get away, but there was not anything that I could do about it other than hope.

After we got back, I was preparing for bed. Apparently Ric decided that he was going to stay with us. I heard the doorbell and answered it and there was Damon.

"I was wrong about Stefan." He replied. "I thought he was gone."

"You saw him?" I asked in surprise. "Is he alright?"

"No, he's not alright. He's acting like a martyr." Damon responded. "He needs an asskicking, but he can be saved."

"What happened to change your mind?" I asked curiously.

"Stefan saved me from our little hybrid friend." He explained. "It turns out that even when he's bad, he won't let me die. So I owe him the same. "We'll get him back."

I still had to figure out what I was going to say to Stefan when I saw him. I had at least a day to think because I had to work tomorrow and would have to put my Stefan searching on hold. Maybe I would need the job anymore now that Ric was going to help pay the bills, but I liked working. It helped keep me sane. Plus it was the thing that most normal 16-year-olds did and I wanted to be as normal as I could.

"So it sounded like Damon was back." Anna said when I got to the room.

"Yeah, now he's on board with the whole bringing Stefan back thing." I explained. "Stefan killed that hybrid tonight."

"You know in case things don't work out with Stefan, I just wanted to tell you that things are going to be okay." She told me.

"How do you mean?" I replied.

"Well Stefan's just a guy. I get that you're in love, but it doesn't mean that you won't be able to fall in love again." She remarked. "Lots of people do it."

"I still want Stefan." I declared. "Good night."

So unfortunately, Anna won't be going to Chicago. However, they did have a nice moment at the end and Ric is back. Please don't forget to review.


	3. Going to Chicago

I was woken up early in the morning by Damon. It was especially since I wasn't working and planned on sleeping in.

"What the fuck, Damon?" Anna asked. That was what I was gonna say. "It's 6:00 in the morning."

"Well we need to get going because I know where Stefan is." Damon remarked.

"Where is he?" I asked hopefully.

"Windy City." Damon answered.

"He's in Chicago?" I responded. I wanted to make sure that we were on the same page.

"Well I can't go because I have to work." Anna explained. We were supposed to be scheduled to always work together, but the manager screwed that one up. The vervain that the sheriff put in the coffee meant that there would be no compelling her way out of it.

"Hurry up and get ready." Damon ordered. "I want to be gone within the hour."

Obviously, I didn't have a lot of time. I rushed into the shower and got dressed before I went out to Damon's car. I couldn't help but wonder when he had been to Chicago. I figured that it might be a good idea to tie my hair up so it wouldn't blow everywhere, even though I wasn't if that was actually true.

I decided that one thing that I needed to do was plan my speech to Stefan. I really hoped that I would actually get to see him. It was going to have to be a hell of a speech to convince him to come back.

"So have ever been to Chicago before?" Damon asked. I couldn't help but notice that he was driving way over the speed limit. "Why are you still wearing that?"

"I like it." I responded. "It's nice."

"Well I know that you're drinking vervain, so you don't need it for that." He pointed out.

"It was a gift and I want to wear it." I argued before he reached into the back. It appeared to be Stefan's diary.

"You need to read this." Damon instructed. "It'll tell you like Stefan was like last time he was in Chi-town."

"I'm not gonna read his diary." I stated.

"This is not the Stefan that you no." Damon pointed out.

"I've seen Stefan at his darkest." I told him.

"That was in no way his darkest." Damon said as he grabbed the book and began to read. "3/12/22, I black out most days, I woke up in strangers' blood with women I don't remember. I'm shocked, Stefan's not a virgin."

"Pay attention to the road." I ordered as I snatched the book. I took it and began to read.

"We should play Punch Buggy." He suggested. I wished that I had brought some headphones with me.

Once we got to Chicago, we pulled into an old apartment building. It looked like it had been there for a while. It almost looked like it was falling apart. If I were in charge of the city, I would definitely upgrade it, but it looked like people were still living there.

"Why are we in this dump?" I asked.

"This is where Stefan used to live in the 20s." He explained as we got out of the car.

"If Stefan could live anywhere in Chicago, why the hell would he choose this dump?" I asked as I looked around the inside. We headed up a few floors before finding stopping on one. From the inside, I couldn't really see the appeal either.

"There used to be an all-girls school near here." Damon explained. Did that mean what I thought it meant? "It eventually closed down due to attendance issues. Let's just say that you weren't the first schoolgirl he had eyes for."

It looked like it did.

"If you're trying to get me to go back home by scaring me, it won't work." I declared.

Damon just took the doorknob an ripped it off. I supposed that was one way to get into the room. I wasn't sure why he couldn't just compel the key out of the front desk. We walked inside and the interior didn't seem to be all that great either. Maybe it was because no one lived in it in 90 years.

"Here we are: Ripper Stefan's home." He announced.

"I'm pretty sure that he hasn't been here." I remarked. It didn't look like anyone had been there recently.

"There's more." Damon instructed. I noticed that there seemed to be a lot of liquor around. I could definitely go for some of it. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to get drunk before seeing him, but I might want to talk a bottle or two for the road. Damon pulled back a bookcase to reveal a secret compartment. It was a compartment that was filled with…more booze. It made sense in the 20s.

"He had his alcohol, so what?" I asked. "It was the 20s and I bet everyone was doing it."

"Look closer." He suggested. I looked at one of the walls and saw that it was a list of names. At first I didn't know what it meant, but then I saw Giuseppe Salvatore, Thomas Fell, and Honoria Fell and I gasped.

"Are these all of his victims?" I questioned. There had to be at least a hundred people on it. "Well what did you do in the 20s? I'm sure that you probably your own list of victims."

"I was around, but I didn't like to write them down." He answered. "Chicago's a big city and I was able to enjoy a few Daisy Buchanans of my own."

"You know that story was set in New York, don't you?" I asked.

"I don't know why. Chicago had much better jazz." Damon replied. "You know a lot of people came from New Orleans."

"Yes, the Great Migration, I'm not an idiot." I replied.

"Actually you're probably one of the only people your age that knows anything about that." He pointed out. "The education system really does suck these days."

"Where are you going?" I asked as I noticed that he was heading for the door.

"I'm going to Stefan's old hangout." He stated.

"You're not going without me." I countered.

"You need to stay here and try to come up with an actual plan." He instructed. "I'll do my best not to get killed before I come back."

I began to look around the apartment there weren't any books that I could read and I wasn't getting any coverage on my phone. I did have Stefan's diary and several bottles of alcohol. I had to figure which one I was going to use first. I was pretty thirsty, so I decided to pour myself a glass of scotch. I then got on top of the bed. I wanted to make sure that I didn't fall asleep because for all I knew, there were bed bugs and I did not want those kinds of marks on my perfect skin.

Once I was done with my glass, I decided that I should try to read the diary to see if I could find out how Stefan managed to get out of his no humanity funk. What I found was that he was found a few years earlier by Lexi. The two of them apparently had a system. It was a good thing that he still had his humanity because she wasn't an option anymore. I looked the pages and they went up by years. It seemed to be a process that would take decades to undo. There had to be a better way to do things than that. I mean Stefan still cared enough to call me and he also saved Damon's life.

I then heard footsteps and I was pretty sure that there were voices. After a second, I realized that the voices were of Stefan and Klaus. I had to find a place to hide. How could I have such bad luck? I was at least lucky I had finished my drink. I decided to hide behind the bookcase.

"Do you feel that?" Klaus asked. "Someone's been here."

"It's been deserted for decades." Stefan pointed out. "I bet people break in all of the time. I had to do my best to control my heartbeat because I did not want them to know that I was there. "So why exactly did you see a reason to bring me here?"

"Your friend, Liam Grant, I wondered why you asked for his name." Klaus remarked. I looked at the wall and noticed that Liam Grant was on it. "Then you told me. You kill them and then you write the name down to relive it over and over again."

Klaus came and moved the bookcase and I quickly moved. I hoped that he wouldn't see or hear me.

"Do you believe me now?" Klaus asked. "Come. Take a look."

Stefan walked in and looked at me. I just put my finger in front of my lips. I was quivering in fear.

"Look what I found." Stefan said. I was fucked. I was fucked. I was about to die. Unexpectedly, Stefan grabbed a bottle instead. "1918, single malt."

"My favorite. Let's go find someone to pair it with." Klaus replied before the two of them left. I still couldn't believe it. I was pretty sure that I almost had a heart attack. I was at least very close to wetting myself. I texted Damon to let him know that they were around and then headed to the bathroom.

I decided to grab a vervain needle in case they came back. I waited for a good hour and I couldn't help but wonder what was taking Damon so long. I heard the door opening and readied myself, but luckily, it was just him. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"What took you so long?" I asked him angrily. "I texted you an hour ago."

He then threw a bag at me. I had to think fast but I managed to catch it. It looked like a bag that you would keep a fancy dress in. The only question was why would Damon give me a nice dress to wear. Were we going somewhere that I needed to wear one?

"Put this on." He commanded.

"Did you not get the part about Stefan and Klaus being here?" I asked him in annoyance. I opened the bag to see was a black dress with long sleeves and a layered skirt. It looked pretty nice but I still didn't understand why I needed it.

"No, I had an hour to realize what a bad idea it was to leave you here alone, so I'm going to take you out somewhere nice." He explained. "It's also the place that I'm pretty sure that Stefan will be. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I declared.

"Good now get dressed." He repeated.

"Where is he going to be?" I asked as I went to the bathroom and began to get undressed. I had to trust that he wouldn't look.

"He'll be at this bar with Klaus. I'll distract our hybrid friend so you can get a chance to talk to him." He explained.

"Okay." I replied as I finished slipping the dress on.

"But you'll have about five minutes before Klaus decides to kill me, so I need to know that you will be able to do this." He added.

"I can do this." I responded. "I don't suppose that you have any shoes that I can wear with this, do you?"

"No." He replied.

Damon went inside and I waited outside for him to bring Stefan out. I supposed that I should go in, not only because I was a minor, but mainly because Klaus was inside and I still didn't want to be seen by him. I seriously hoped that I would be able to convince him to come back with us. I was once again without a speech. It looked like I would just have to wing it.

Damon came out and threw him against a car. Someone was going to be upset about the dent he left.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Stefan asked.

"What's wrong with you?" The older brother countered. "First you kill my girlfriend and then you save my life. Are you good or bad? Pick one because you can't be both."

"Klaus almost saw Mary." Stefan remarked. He knew that. "You need to get her out of here."

"Mary's not going to leave until she's got you checked into vampire rehab." Damon pointed out. "She's too stubborn to do otherwise."

"She's the reason that Klaus can't make hybrids." Stefan argued. "She was supposed to die in the ritual and Klaus's witch is going to find that out any minute. You need to tell her to leave now."

"Tell her yourself." Damon replied. I knew that was my cue. I stepped out.

"So, how are you?" I asked.

"You shouldn't be here." He stated.

"I'm pretty sure that I've lost track of the number of times that you've told me that." I declared.

"What do you want?" He asked. I wasn't sure why because he knew what I was going to say. "Damon won't be able to distract Klaus long."

"I want you to come home." I told him before I gave him a hug. I prepared to stab him with the needle, but he pushed my hand away, causing me to lose it in the process.

"Are you seriously just going to give up?" I questioned. "I thought that you were a fighter. Please come with me."

"You're stupid if you think that things will be how they used to." He replied.

"I know that things will be different, but they will get better eventually." I offered with a weak smile.

"We can't fix this." He argued. "You need to go home and move on."

"Lexi fixed you before." I countered. "She found you in the 20s and made you better."

"That took 30 years." He remarked. "I'm not letting you waste your life for me."

"I'm not giving up on you." I declared adamantly.

"You're going to have to because I never want to see you again." He said. I took my hand and slapped him, hoping that it would knock some sense into him, but it didn't. I supposed if I got nothing else, I got some closure.

So no Anna and Mary in this chapter, but the next one will have a lot of it. Please don't forget to review.


	4. Going to Move On

Anna and I were currently in the kitchen making some chili. I was wearing a red button-up blouse with a leather jacket and green leather miniskirt with buttons. She was handling the cutting so I wouldn't cut myself.

I was on the phone with Damon, who had called to check up on me.

"Are you seriously bringing chili to a potluck?" He asked. The Lockwoods were hosting a picnic. "Everyone brings chili."

"It's an old family recipe." I argued. It was my first real attempt to cook by myself.

"I knew your old family." Damon countered. "They made sucky chili."

"Goodbye Damon." I said before hanging up. I then looked at Anna, who was adding cayenne. "What are you doing?"

"I'm diverting from the recipe a little." She remarked. "Trust me. It will be better this way."

At that moment, Ric entered the kitchen.

"So what time do you want to head over to the Lockwoods?" I asked him.

"I don't think that's really something that I want to go to." He admitted.

"Come on, being social is a great way to make friends." I told him before I took a sip of the chili. "You're right, this is better."

"I told you." Anna remarked. "I know my stuff when it comes to cooking, even though most of experience comes from Chinese."

"Have you ever been to China?" I asked curiously.

"Yes and what they serve there is a lot different from what we call Chinese food." She explained. I wasn't sure if the rumors about them serving cats and dogs were true. If they were, I knew I wouldn't want to eat anything there that I wasn't sure what it was. "You got some food on your hand."

"What, are you going to lick it off?" I teased her.

"I will if you want me to." She shot back. I giggled. "Ric, please come with us. You wouldn't be a very good guardian if you let us go by ourselves."

"I'm a bit surprised that you haven't tried to find my liquor." Ric stated.

"I already made it past the drinking the stage." I stated. He just looked at me. "Okay…so I didn't know where you hid it, but I'm going to try to make it through this breakup without alcohol."

"She'll probably only last a few hours." Anna remarked. I wasn't sure if she was being serious or not.

"I can do this." I argued. "Just because I spent the entire summer looking for someone who didn't want to be found doesn't mean that I'm going to give up on my life. It's time to move on and face the fact that I'm never gonna see him again."

He then went upstairs to take a shower. At that time, I heard the doorbell ring. I went to the door to see Caroline with a pot.

"I come bearing gifts." She announced.

"Please tell me that's not chili." I requested. She frowned before Bonnie stepped out and I gave her a hug.

Elena then came downstairs and also gave her girlfriend a hug. We then headed into the kitchen to combine our chili into one dish.

"The worst part about my dad's normal family is that things can get boring easily." Bonnie explained.

"Well after the last few days, I would kill for a normal family." Caroline pointed out. "So where did this come from? You've been known for cooking."

"Anna helped me." I answered nonchalantly.

"So you two are cooking together now?" Caroline asked suspiciously.

"Yes, what's wrong with that?" I replied, noticing the look on her face. "Why is everyone looking at me like I'm going to break? I'm dealing with it."

"We should work on this chili." Anna replied. I grabbed our pot to hold it into place while Caroline began to pour.

"I'm going to be fine, guys." I explained before I suddenly felt a great pain in my chest. "What the fuck?"

I noticed it was coming from my necklace and tore it off quickly.

"Did I splash you?" Caroline asked in concern.

"No it's my necklace." I remarked. "It burned me."

I looked it over on the counter, wondering how it could do that. Anna touched it and sparks came out of it.

Once we got to the Lockwood house, I went and met Caroline and Bonnie over by a tree while Anna was getting something to eat. Bonnie brought her grimoire with her.

"Okay, so it looks like the necklace is a talisman." Bonnie explained. "I can do a spell to find out what kind of spell someone else used on it."

I handed her the necklace and Bonnie began to chant.

"So you're not like fucking Anna are you?" Caroline asked me. What? How did she even come to that conclusion?

"What?" Bonnie questioned.

"Focus." Caroline told her.

"No, Anna and I are friends and that's it." I explained, still wondering why I needed to.

"There's nothing wrong with wanting to be with someone else." Caroline pointed out.

"Guys." Bonnie interrupted. We both turned to look at her and saw that the necklace was floating in midair. "It has its own magic."

All I knew was that I definitely didn't want to wear it anymore. What were the odds that the necklace that Stefan gave me a little less than a year ago was actually a magical artifact that hadn't shown any of its power until just today?

I decided to go to the table and noticed that Damon was right. Everyone did bring chili. I wished that I had been more creative but I didn't have my dad's cooking skills because I wasn't his daughter, even though I wasn't sure if that stuff was genetic. Science wasn't one of my stronger points.

I grabbed myself a bowl and sat down with Anna.

"So what's the deal with the necklace?" She asked.

"It's a talisman that contains magic inside of it surprisingly." I explained. "I loved it, but now I can't wear it anymore."

"Well sometimes things just don't work out." She remarked. I debated whether or not to talk to her about what Caroline had said. It really wasn't something that we needed to talk about because she didn't even like me like that, even if I liked her. I, of course, didn't, which made the entire point moot.

I did think that I needed to consider the possibility of moving on. It probably wouldn't be with Anna because I didn't like girls like that. Tyler was now dating Caroline, so I didn't really have a shot with him anymore, even though it would be ironic if I went back to him. I didn't want to date Damon because I was still 16 and I didn't care about what Isobel said because I thought it would look creepy regardless of whether or not he was a vampire. That essentially left Matt as the only available bachelor and I still didn't think that he was too keen on the vampire stuff. There was also the fact that he dated my older sister which would make things more awkward. On top of all that, Matt just really was not my type. I didn't know what my type was, but it wasn't him. I might've had to wait to see if there would be any interesting new students that showed up.

Another thing that I felt was that I was still kind of interested in becoming a vampire. It wasn't for Isobel's selfish reasons, but the main reason was that I wanted to stay friends with Anna. We could possibly be like Stefan and Lexi were. The idea of best friends forever actually being literal was exciting. Not to mention, I would also have Caroline. The idea of changing for someone else seemed like a better idea than doing it for myself.

"So you know it's okay to be upset about Stefan being gone, don't you?" She asked. "The first cut is the deepest just like I told Cat Stevens."

"So you're saying that you could have had a career as a songwriter?" I responded.

"I have if I wanted to, but I never did." She explained. "But that's not the point."

"Well I just don't want to be the girl who gets upset over a breakup." I explained. "Don't get me wrong, it hurts that he chose his brother over me, but it's not like I can do anything about it."

"Well you have a long life ahead of you." She declared.

"Do you mean that literally?" I asked.

"I'm not gonna turn you." She replied. "At least, I won't right now. Maybe I'll do it after you graduate. I just hope that you don't want to do it so you can still be the same when Stefan's 10 years are up."

"That makes it sound like he's in prison." I commented. Well, he kind of was and Klaus was one hell of a warden. "No, the reason that I wanted to turn was to be with you actually."

"It was?" She asked in surprise.

"You know so we can still be friends without having to worry about aging." I explained.

"Oh, well I still don't want to turn you right now." She admitted. It was at that time that we noticed that Damon was talking to Ric about something.

"What are they saying?" I asked curiously.

"Damon's telling him about how the parties are basically just a cover-up so the council can meet."

The council seemed like it was kind of a joke these days. The leaders were Damon, Sheriff Forbes and Mayor Lockwood, who didn't really have a huge problem with vampires. The town didn't have a huge problem with vampires since Klaus had left.

At that point, Sheriff Forbes appeared and took Damon away. I assumed that meant the meeting was about to start.

"So I can't believe that Caroline's father would just torture her like that." I stated.

"Well he does have more restraint than some people." Anna remarked. "In 1864 if you were turned into a vampire, there wouldn't be any correctional therapy. The only remedy that was suggested was to give God a chance to judge them."

"You know I can't believe that they thought to burn the vampires in a church." I admitted.

"It was the largest building in town." She told me. I hadn't thought of it like that. When I looked at it that way, it made sense.

"So have you noticed anything strange about Elena recently?" I questioned after finishing my food.

"What do you mean?" She asked. "I haven't seen her smoking lately."

"Well she just seems kind of out of it at times." I told her. "I thought that Bonnie being back would change things, but she still seemed the same."

"It's probably something that she needs to talk to Bonnie about." She suggested. "She's probably still spooked about the fact that she died."

"I died too." I pointed out. "I'm not freaking out about it."

"Well you were able to focus your feelings into your search for Stefan." She reminded me. "Elena's not as good with dealing with her feelings as you."

"We should probably find Ric so we can go." I stated.

Pretty much at that exact moment, he came outside.

"There you are." I explained. "I think it would be a good time for us to go."

"No, you can't leave yet." Damon replied as he suddenly appeared.

"Where have you been?" I asked.

"Managing Bill Forbes." Damon answered. "It turns out that he's impervious to compulsion. He threatened to out me. Don't even get me started on the irony of that."

"Well what does he want?" I asked.

"He wants to put vervain in the water supply." Damon explained.

"Maybe that's not such a bad idea." Ric opined.

"No, I'm with Damon. I want to be able to take a shower without having to go through agonizing pain." Anna stated. "We need to find him and stop him."

"And kill him." Damon added.

"No, we're not going to kill Caroline's dad." I argued.

"And when I kill him, she'll have one more parent than we do." Damon reasoned.

"Damon, cut it out." Ric ordered. He then looked at the ring on Ric's finger and snapped his neck.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" I asked him before he headed into the house.

I decided to call Caroline to tell her in hopes that she could stop him because she would definitely be angry.

In the end, Damon went after him, but Caroline managed to stop him. It was all a big headache. Anna and I had to take Ric home and we were currently waiting for him to wake up.

"So there's something that I need to talk to you about." I replied. "Do you like me?"

"Of course I like you." She stated.

"You know what I mean. So do you like me?" I repeated.

"Yes…" She answered nervously. "But I know that you don't feel the same and I don't want to ruin our friendship."

"Why didn't you tell me about this before?" I asked her angrily. "This is kind of a big deal."

"As I remember correctly, I made it perfectly clear that I liked you when I kissed you." She argued.

"I didn't know that you still felt that way!" I shouted.

"I'm sorry for how I feel." She quipped before storming upstairs. That was when Ric awoke.

We didn't talk for the rest of the night. The next day, I was doing some back-to-school shopping with Elena and Caroline.

"So I can't believe that Anna has liked me this entire time and not and said anything about." I remarked.

"Mary, I don't think that you really have room to be mad at her." Elena suggested. Another thing that I found out was Elena was seeing ghosts. She was seeing Vicki and also Luca.

"Yes I do." I responded.

"Okay, it's been a long week and I can't take this anymore." Caroline interrupted. "Just admit it already, Mary. You are attracted to Anna."

"I can't be." I replied. "What does that say about me? I still love Stefan."

"It means that you're human and that you're bisexual." Caroline explained. "Look, you don't have to be with her or anything. How about you come to the school with us tonight for prank night?"

"That's a senior thing." I pointed out.

"Just come." Elena ordered.

So Mary is finally coming to terms with her attraction for Anna, even though it caused friction, which caused Anna to get kidnapped by Katherine. Please don't forget to review.


	5. Going to School

I was at the school with Caroline, Elena, Bonnie, and Tyler. I was wearing a white blouse with a black leather jacket with mesh sleeves and a baby blue lace skirt with white heeled sandals with black polka-dots.

"I shouldn't be here." I declared as we were setting up mousetraps. It was Senior Prank Night.

"You need some fun in your life." Caroline told me. "Even though you're not a senior, you can still be here. Now get the lights."

I was kind of confused as to what we were doing. It wasn't like any teachers would be there. Also, why we were doing this at the beginning of the year? On top of that, how were we going to get out?

The door opened the light went on, setting up all of the mousetraps. I noticed a very freaked-looking Matt in the door.

"What the fuck, seriously?" Caroline replied. "Do you know how long it took to set all of this up?"

"You forgot about Senior Prank Night, didn't you?" Tyler asked.

"Clearly." Matt declared after taking a breath.

"How could you forget? We've only been planning this since freshman year." Caroline told him. Shouldn't he have known that already?

"Yeah, Matt, if I'm doing this, you're doing this." Elena remarked.

"I'm surprised that any of you are doing this, especially Mary." He stated. It seemed like I definitely didn't belong.

"Caroline's making us." Bonnie explained.

"We're about to be seniors." Caroline replied. "These are the memories that will stay with us forever and…"

"If we don't create these memories now, then what's the point of all?" Elena interrupted cheekily. It had been so long since I had seen my sister be sarcastic.

The one thing that I didn't know was where Anna was. I still hadn't seen her and she wasn't answering my texts. I assumed that it meant that she was still mad at me. Damon also seemed to be MIA, but I wasn't as concerned with his whereabouts.

"Go ahead, make fun." Caroline declared. "I don't care."

"Well I think you are all lame." Tyler remarked. "I've got ten more classrooms to prank."

I started to leave since I didn't really fit in with them.

"Where are you going?" Bonnie asked me. I had to come up with someone.

"I'm…going to glue Alaric's shut." I lied. It seemed like they bought it. I then added. "I'm making memories."

"Love you." Caroline called after me. I walked out into the hallway and found Tyler talking to some people that I didn't know. I began to head for the exit when I suddenly bumped into the last person in the world that I wanted to see. No, not Stefan: Klaus.

"There's my girl." He declared. I was completely fucked.

"Klaus." I said. It was the only thing that I could think to say. I knew that I wouldn't be able to run.

"You're supposed to be dead." He stated before he grabbed me by the arm. "You put a rather large kink, Love. The whole point of breaking the curse and becoming a hybrid was to make more hybrids. Now my bet is that it has something to do with the fact that you're still breathing."

"If you're going to kill me, then kill me." I ordered. I didn't really have any way of stopping him.

"Not until I know that I'm right." He responded. "But I do have plans of making you suffer in the meantime."

He carried me into the gym where a bunch of people had set a bunch of cups on the floor. I didn't understand what the prank was supposed to be there.

"Attention Seniors." Klaus said in an American accent. "You have officially been busted. Prank night is over. You can all go home."

Everyone started to leave in disappointment before I noticed Dana and some guy.

"You two." He said to them. "I remember you."

"Who are you?" Dana asked. Don't just stand there you idiot. Get out of here!

"Don't worry. I wasn't in my right head last time we met." He explained. "Lift your foot up, Dana."

She did so and it seemed like it was too late for them.

"Now, Chad, if she drops her foot I want you to beat her to death." Klaus compelled.

"Come on, Klaus. You don't have to have to hurt innocent people."

"Don't be silly, Love. Of course I do." He explained. I definitely should not have come. I should've stayed home instead.

After a few minutes, Dana was clearly having trouble keeping her balance. Was Chad even capable of beating her to death?

"Keep it up." Klaus instructed.

"Where's Stefan?" I asked. "What did you do to him?"

"Stefan's in a time out right now." He declared as Bonnie, Elena and Matt walked in.

"Bonnie, get out of here!" I yelled, but Klaus made it over to her first.

"I was wondering when you'd show up." The hybrid said. "Now we can get started. Dana, you and Chad can sit tight."

He then looked over Bonnie.

"I assume that you're the reason that Mary is still living." He replied.

"Yes and if you're going to blame someone, blame me." She told him.

"There's no need for blame, Love." He responded. Why did he say that to every girl? Was that something that everyone British guy did? "It's just your witchy interference has left me with some undesirable side effects and I figure that since you caused the problem, you should also solve it."

At that time, a tall, blonde girl dragged Tyler inside.

"Get off me." He ordered.

"Everyone, I'd like you to meet my sister, Rebekah." Klaus introduced. "Word of warning, she is quite mean."

"Don't be an ass." Rebekah responded before she shoved Tyler towards him.

"Leave him alone!" Elena demanded. She was in no position for that.

"I'm going to make this quite simple." Klaus explained as he fed his blood into Tyler's mouth. "Every time I try to turn a werewolf into a vampire-werewolf hybrid, they die. It's quite horribly actually."

He then broke Tyler's neck and we all gasped.

"I need you to save my hybrid, Bonnie." He added. "And for your friend's sake, you better hurry."

"He killed him." Matt stated. Yes, that was what happened.

"He's not dead." I reminded him. "Klaus wants to turn him into a hybrid and I might have to die for that to happen."

"Might is the key word." Klaus declared. "Go and fetch your grimoires and whatnot."

Klaus grabbed me so I couldn't leave before the three of them left.

"So this is the latest doppelganger." Rebekah commented as she looked me over. "The Original was much prettier."

How could she be prettier if we looked exactly the same?

"Enough, Rebekah." Klaus told her. "Go and take the wolf boy elsewhere."

She dragged Tyler's body away and left me with Klaus. I hoped that we wouldn't be able to figure out that I hadn't had my vervain today. Though, compelling me might not serve a purpose.

We waited a few minutes until the door opened. To my surprise, Stefan walked in. He was looking mainly at Klaus. What was he doing?

"You're here." I stated.

"Klaus." He greeted the hybrid.

"Are you here to save your damsel?" Klaus asked.

"I'm here to beg for your forgiveness." Stefan explained. I wasn't sure what he was up to. "I want to pledge my eternal loyalty to you."

"You already broke that pledge once." Klaus stated. I couldn't help but wonder what happened between them.

"Mary means nothing to me." Stefan remarked. He had made that pretty clear earlier. "I'll do whatever you ask."

"Okay, let's drink on it." Klaus responded. If he had some drinks, I wanted some. He then pointed to Chad and Dana. "Kill them."

"No, Stefan, don't do it." I told him. Klaus then came and smacked me to the ground. Stefan rushed over and grabbed him and Klaus responded by grabbing his neck.

"She means nothing? Your lies keep piling up." Klaus said.

"Let her go." Stefan choked out. "I'll do whatever you ask. You have my word."

"Your word is meaningless to me." Klaus replied. "I lived by your word all summer and not once did I have to resort to this. _Stop fighting and kill them. You will do whatever I say. If I ask you to jump, you'll do it without asking 'how high'."_

I watched as Stefan ran over to Dana and bit into her neck before doing the same thing to Chad. It must have been what compulsion was like, but it was still extremely shocking. I really wished that Anna was with me, but I had Klaus's watchful eyes on me preventing me from even taking out my phone.

"It's so nice to see a vampire in his true element." Klaus told me as I watched Stefan chow on the two of them. I couldn't help but wonder if he was doing it to torture me for being alive.

"You did this to him." I pointed out.

"I only invited him to the party, Love." Klaus argued with a chuckle. "He's the one dancing on the table."

At that point, Rebekah stormed into the gym.

"Where is it?" She demanded. "Where's my necklace?"

Did that necklace belong to her? If so, how did Stefan get it from her? I didn't even know where it was.

"What are you talking about?" Klaus asked as Rebekah stalked over to us.

"This little tart has my necklace." She explained as she showed him a phone.

"Well, well more lies." Klaus commented after looking at it.

"Where is it?" Rebekah repeated. She looked like she was about to lose her mind.

"I don't have it." I answered.

"You're lying." She declared before she bit into my neck. Klaus tore her off of me.

"Knock it off!" He commanded.

"Make her tell me where it is Nik!" She yelled.

"Where's the necklace, Love?" He compelled me.

"It's with Katherine." I droned before snapping back to reality.

"Well that's unfortunate." Klaus remarked. "That necklace would certainly make things easier for your witch. You know I think we should put a timer on this."

Klaus set the basketball scoreboard to 20 minutes. I did wonder how he did it so easily.

"If Bonnie hasn't found the solution by the time the clock runs out, I want you to feed on Mary." Klaus instructed. "You know you want a taste of her blood."

Apparently he didn't know that Stefan had already drunk my blood before.

"No one leaves." Klaus stated. Apparently, he left and so did Rebekah. Who exactly was supposed to keep us inside? It was possible that Klaus was standing by the exit, but there were two exits.

After a few minutes, the timer was still running down.

"Stefan, you can drink from me." I told him. "You did it before."

"That was before I spent all summer losing the control that I had built up." Stefan explained. "I'm a ripper now and I kill people and if I have to feed from you, I'll kill you."

"Well then you can fight the compulsion." I remarked. "Caroline's dad learned how to be resistant to compulsion."

"Yeah, I'm sure that he had years of practice at that." Stefan replied. I could tell the smell of open wound was making him uncomfortable.

"I know that you can fight it." I told him.

"Why because I love you?" He quipped.

"Yes, because you love me." I stated. "You're strong enough for this. Nothing's stronger than the power of love."

"You know this whole summer, you've been the one thing that's kept me from giving up." He replied. "I want to turn it all off and I can't help what I am, Mary. The more blood I have, the more I want."

I then noticed that the clock was almost at zero. I was getting nervous because I didn't know how close Bonnie was.

"Mary, you need to run." Stefan instructed. "There's no one guarding the exits. Just run."

I realized that he was probably right and started to sprint just as the clock reached zero. I couldn't help but notice that Stefan kept running into things. It was like he was trying to slow himself down. Unfortunately, I ended up in Klaus's arms.

"Good news: you get to live." He told me.

He took me to the cafeteria where Stefan was. I noticed that he had a stake and was preparing to stab himself in the heart with it. Would he really rather die than kill me?

"Now this is interesting." Klaus remarked. "The only thing stronger than your craving for blood is your love for this one girl. Why don't you turn it off?"

"No." Stefan replied.

"Your humanity is killing you." Klaus stated. "Turn it off."

"NO!" Stefan repeated.

Klaus grabbed him and threw him against one of the walls.

"_TURN IT OFF_!" He compelled.

Stefan just stood there.

"What did you do?" I asked in shock.

"I fixed him." Klaus answered. "Now how about a drink from the doppelganger? Be careful though. I need to keep her alive."

He then came over and bit into me. I screamed as he fed until I blacked out.

When I woke up, I was in a hospital bed. There was a nurse by my side.

"Where am I?" I asked.

"You're in the hospital sweetie. You've lost a lot of blood." The nurse explained.

"I need to go." I declared.

"That's not happening." She replied. I then noticed that the blood wasn't going into me, it was coming out.

"Why are you taking my blood?" I asked.

"It's for your friend Klaus." She remarked. So she had been compelled. She then stuck a needle into me. "You need plenty of rest."

I blacked out again. It seemed like there was nothing I could do.

I wasn't sure how much later it was when I woke up, but I was in Anna's arms.

"Let's get you somewhere safe." She suggested.

She took me to the boarding house. The first thing that she did was give me her blood.

"Why did you bring me here?" I asked her.

"I figured that you needed a drink." She stated as she handed me a glass of bourbon. "I'm sorry that I wasn't there. Katherine kidnapped me. I'm never going to let that happen again."

"Stefan's really gone. I saw nothing in his eyes." I explained. "He's let it all go."

"Then you need to let him go too." She suggested.

"Well isn't this sweet?" Stefan asked. Where was Damon anyway?

"What are you doing here, Stefan?" Anna questioned as she stood up to defend me.

"I live here." Stefan pointed out. I didn't expect him to come back. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you, Mary. As a matter of fact, since Klaus is gone, you are under my protection. Now just keep doing whatever you were doing."

"Let's get the hell out of here." I told Anna after he went upstairs.

So Anna rescued Mary from Klaus's clutches and got him to leave by mentioning her grandfather. Please don't forget to review.


	6. Going to Fix You

I woke up early to the sound of my alarm.

"Why is there an alarm?" Anna asked as she covered her ears.

"I need to get up to train with Ric." I explained.

"Well turn it off because I want to go back to sleep." She ordered as I got dressed in some sweats.

I met Ric in the hall and tried to talk to him, but he was having none of it. She believed it had to do with him not having had any coffee.

Not that long after, we went out into the woods. He had set up a training dummy, which I wasn't sure how he'd gotten.

"Now the pressure of your punch ejects the stakes." He declared as he demonstrated.

"Okay, that seems easy enough." I declared as I punched at it and the stakes came out.

"Wow, I honestly didn't expect that you would be strong enough to do that." He admitted.

"I work out regularly for cheerleading." I explained. "So now what?"

"Do you know what this is?" He asked as he pulled out a grenade.

"A vervain grenade, I've used them before." I answered.

"Then you'd know that they are best used when you have the element of surprise." He explained. He then pulled the pin and handed it to me. "Surprise."

I then realized what he had done and threw it into the air where it exploded.

"That wasn't funny!" I scolded him.

"I wasn't trying to be." He argued. "You have to be ready for this stuff. Vampires will do whatever they want and take whatever they want and hurt whoever they want."

"You don't have to use pronouns." I told him. "You can say his name."

"Look, I get why you want to do this." He explained. "Stefan hurt you and you want to hurt him back."

"Do you think that I'm crazy?" I asked.

"I think that you're trying to deal with a tough time." He explained. "I know that you want revenge."

"Is this what you felt?" I questioned.

"I think that we need to head to school." He replied.

We headed back to the house and I put on a pastel pink blouse and matching blue skirt with a scarf around my neck.

Once I got to school, the first thing that I decided to do was talk to Caroline and Bonnie about the previous night. Being back at school was definitely weird.

"So how is everyone feeling?" I asked.

"I think we need to move on from the bad stuff." Caroline opined. "I mean so what if my boyfriend is a vampire-werewolf hybrid."

"Yeah, and so what if my girlfriend is seeing ghosts of her ex and who knows who else." Bonnie replied.

"It's our anniversary." I realized. The two of them stared at me. "Technically Stefan and I met on the first day of school last year even though we didn't start dating until a few days later."

"Okay that does suck." Caroline replied. "You win. Are you sure that you want to be here?"

"Yes, I missed enough days last year." I stated. "I'm not going to let him scare me away from school."

I met Anna when I went into the school.

"So were you able to get back to sleep?" I asked her.

"How did the training session go?" She retorted.

"I went better than I expected." I answered. "Now you need to remember that we have cheerleading after school."

"How could I forget?" She responded. We then noticed that Caroline was putting up a flyer for the back-to-school party at the Falls.

"What's this about?" Anna asked her.

"It's an annual thing. I thought you were here last year." Caroline replied.

"I didn't get here until after the comet." Anna explained.

"Well it's…" Caroline started before Tyler cut her off with a kiss. Once she pulled away, she touched her lips.

"Is that blood?" I asked, noticing a spot on his shirt.

"I'm gonna go to class." Anna announced before Caroline dragged him into the bathroom. I reluctantly followed her.

"What's going on?" Tyler asked.

"The first rule of being a vampire: don't get your breakfast at school." Caroline explained as I prepared a wet towel.

"Chill out. It was just a blood bag." Tyler argued. "Rebekah hooked me up."

"And why are you hanging out with Rebekah?" She asked.

"Klaus told her to look out for me." He told her. "He wants to protect his new asset."

"You sound like a tool." I commented.

"Hey, I'm Klaus's first successful hybrid. Don't you think that's at least the tiniest bit awesome?" He asked.

"I'm gonna go." I announced. I didn't know what was wrong with him.

I walked outside and like it was déjà vu, I ran right into Stefan. Only this time, I did not get knocked to the ground.

"Hey, funny how history repeats itself." He quipped. "Only last time, you were drunk."

"Get out of my way, Stefan." I ordered. "I need to get to class."

"Class is that way." He declared as he grabbed me and pointed in the opposite direction. Had he enrolled in my AP History just to spite me?

"Do you think that I want to be a high school student for the hundredth time?" He asked. "If I don't have a choice in the matter than neither do you, so go to class."

"What's going on here?" Ric interrupted. Stefan responded by pushing him against the wall.

"You might not want to be the tough guy around me" Stefan warned him. "See you in class."

That led to Anna and I meeting him in his room. We were the only juniors in the class.

"What is he doing here?" Ric asked.

"Klaus wants him to protect me. I'm one of his assets apparently." I explained.

"Well Stefan being here is not good for anybody." He remarked.

"We know that." Anna replied. At that point, the bell rang and students started to come in. I took a seat next to Anna. I actually wasn't sure if I should give her a chance. I kind of wanted to get Stefan to turn his humanity back on before I dealt with any of that stuff.

"You're in my seat." Stefan said to the other guy who had sat on the other side of me. The guy promptly got up and Stefan smirked at me.

"Good Morning, Seniors, and Mary and Anna, welcome to AP American History." Ric lectured. "Let's cleanse the summer from our brains and start with our country's original founders, the Native American tribes."

"What about the Vikings?" Rebekah asked as she entered the room. Oh God, why was she at school?

"There is no evidence of Vikings ever settling here." Ric stated. "Who are you?"

"My name's Rebekah. I'm new and History happens to be my favorite subject." The Original declared.

It seemed that instantly the situation had gone from bad to worse. Now we had to deal with an Original. To be fair, I didn't know her, but everything that she had done made me believe she was a bitch.

After school, I decided to run some laps for my warmups. The football team was practicing. It seemed like they had finally hired a new coach.

"Hey, it's nice to see you." Stefan replied as he started running beside me.

"Go away, Stefan." I ordered.

"You think I'm annoying now, just wait till Homecoming." He instructed. "Who are you bringing by the way? I don't want things to be weird between us."

Since I had my eyes on him, I ran into a guy.

"Sorry." I apologized.

"Watch where you're going, Dick." Stefan ordered as he pushed the guy down.

"Who the fuck are you?" I asked. I couldn't believe that no-humanity Stefan was a bully.

"I'm someone who has been assigned to watch a human blood bag." He stated before he walked away. I went to meet the rest of the squad and saw Rebekah do an impressive series of cartwheels.

"Is she seriously on the cheerleading squad?" I asked Anna.

"Unfortunately, we need someone to fill in because Dana's kind of…dead." She explained.

The following night was the party. I made sure to wear a dress to it. Before the party, we were having a meeting in Alaric's classroom to discuss our plan to deal with Stefan. Everyone was there.

"So does everyone know what they're supposed to do?" I asked.

"I'm supposed to let you distract Stefan while I sneak up and neutralize him." Ric explained.

"Right. Caroline?" I responded.

"I will have the old Forbes jail cell ready." Caroline explained.

"What's Bonnie doing?" Damon asked.

"I'm leaving her out of this." I told him.

"Well what are we going to do about a certain blonde Original that follows Stefan around wherever he goes?" He responded. "We seem to be out of daggers.

"That's where you come in." I remarked. "I need you to get her away from him. Flirt with her or seduce her or whatever."

"You'd probably have better luck finding a dagger." Ric quipped.

"Are you ever not going to be mad at me, Ric?" Damon questioned.

"Not likely." The teacher answered. Damon needed to apologize.

"Hey, I'm here." Tyler replied. I was wondering if he was going to come.

"Hey, I need to raid your mom's vervain supply." I instructed. "We're going to need a lot of it to keep Stefan down for a while.

"You can't do that." Tyler told me.

"Tyler, I know you're acting all differently now, but it's in Stefan's best interest." I explained.

"It's not in Klaus's." Tyler remarked.

"But Klaus is the bad guy." I pointed out.

"He changed my life." Tyler argued. "I never have to turn again."

Damon then rushed over and stabbed him with a vervain needle.

"What the hell was that for?" Caroline shouted.

"He's been sired." Damon replied. "He feels loyal to Klaus and will do whatever he says."

"Wow I've never seen a sire bond." Anna remarked. "I thought they didn't exist."

"That's because they're extremely rare. Maybe that doesn't apply to hybrids." Damon explained. It was interesting that he knew something about vampires that she didn't.

"Well what do we do about it?" Caroline asked him.

"Get a new boyfriend." Damon suggested.

I decided to just go out to the party with Anna. I was seriously thirsty for some booze.

"So what are we doing?" Anna asked.

"We're going to get drunk." I explained. "It'll be a good way to get Stefan's attention."

"Are you sure that's such a good idea?" She questioned.

"It's still a party and I want to have fun." I told her. "This is your first one. Come on and party with me. Please, it's going to be awesome."

"Okay, but only because you asked so nicely." She answered.

The two of us went to get some drinks. I just went for a bottle of beer whereas she headed straight for the keg. I really hoped that the plan would work and we would be able to convince Stefan to turn his humanity back on.

"Hello, Mary." He greeted me.

"Seriously, Stefan, I'm not going to let you ruin my buzz." I told him as I quickly downed the bottle that was in my hand.

"Hey, slow down." He instructed. "We both know that you're a little bit of a lightweight."

"I'm not going to let someone like you tell me how to drink." I replied. I then noticed that Damon was going with the plan and flirting with Rebekah. He really was the only one who could do it. Anna couldn't do to the fact that Rebekah was her aunt.

A little bit later, Anna and I were sitting on the bleachers.

"So do you know what that is?" I asked pointing to a constellation in the sky. My vision was blurry.

"I think it's the bear." Anna slurred. She hadn't gotten drunk with me in a while.

"You're drunk." Stefan remarked.

"What's your point?" I asked.

"I think you need to go home." He stated.

"Uh-oh Anna, it looks like the fun police is here." I joked. "Fine, just let me find my keys."

"You're not driving." He replied. "Come on, I'll drive you."

I then went to the top of the bleachers and stood up.

"Get down from there. You could fall and die." He declared.

"It's okay. I gave her some of my blood." Anna explained.

"You're lying." Stefan said to her.

"Let's find out." I declared as I jumped off the top. I really hoped that he would catch me, otherwise I would die. Luckily, he did. "You saved me."

At that moment, Ric shot him in the back and Anna met us on the ground.

"Wow you two look not sober." He commented.

"That was part of the plan." I explained.

We then headed to Ric's car. We put Stefan in the trunk before Anna and I got inside. Ric was about to get in when suddenly, I smelled smoke. I tried to get out but the door wouldn't budge. Anna tried to open hers, but it wouldn't move either. Ric tried to open it from the outside, but to no avail. Suddenly, I felt that whatever was holding me back stopped and the door opened. My first instinct was to get Stefan out. We managed to get out before the car went up in flames.

"What the fuck just happened?" I asked.

Ric then took us in my car back to the boarding house. Anna decided to walk home.

"Why did you do it?" Stefan replied. "You could have let me die in that car."

"I don't want you to die, Stefan." I explained. "I just want you to return to the way that you used to be."

"You know that makes you pretty weak to hold onto hope like that." He told me.

"It's called being human, Stefan." I declared before I punched him in the gut and unleashed some stakes into him. "Maybe you should try it."

Ric then took me home and I found Anna was getting ready for bed.

"So how exactly did we fail?" I asked her. "I mean it was like someone cast a spell to lock us in there. Do you think that it might be possible that Klaus could have had a witch do it?"

"No, Klaus wants you and Stefan alive and probably me too." She explained. "I think we might have another enemy."

So it would make sense that Esther would want to kill her grandchild just like she wants to kill her children. Also Mary is considering Anna. Please don't forget to review.


	7. Going to Be Scared

It was Saturday and to my knowledge, Elena was still seeing ghosts. I was in town with her, Anna and Ric for some kind of lantern festival. I wore a blue long-sleeved blouse with white polka-dots, with a short-sleeved blue cardigan, blue skirt, hose, and black wedges with blue socks. I wasn't sure what the significance of the festival was.

"As a longtime member of the Historical Society, I am especially proud to be kicking off this day of festivities." Mayor Lockwood stated. "Thank you. Tonight we turn off our lights, and turn up the lanterns as started by our founders a hundred years ago."

We stood in the crowd as I noticed Anna, who was wearing my clothes because she forgot to wash hers. She seemed to be very good at pretending to be a normal cheerleader to the point where I thought that she thought she was a teenager at times.

"Now we welcome Founding Family member Tobias Fell with a history lesson." The mayor continued. He was also Tina's grandpa.

"What are we doing here?" Elena asked.

"As part of the Historical Society, I am required to be here." Ric explained. "And as Founding Family members, you're pretty much required to be here too and Anna follows Mary wherever she goes."

"Well I found this highly entertaining." Anna replied as Mr. Fell said something about the lanterns keeping people safe. "Safe from all of the vampires."

I couldn't help but giggle. I wanted to make sure that I wasn't too loud. It basically did sound like gibberish since I knew that pretty much everything he was saying was a lie. I couldn't help but wonder who would dumb enough to buy into any of it.

Eventually, we got bored with him talking, so we decided to take a seat at a table at the Grill.

"So, Elena, I need your help with something." I stated as I took one of Stefan's diaries out of his bag.

"With what?" Elena asked.

"Every time that Stefan has lost his way, his friend Lexi's been there to get him out of it." I explained.

"Where is she now that we need her?" Ric inquired.

"She's dead." Elena replied. "You want me to see if I can talk to her."

"Can you?" I questioned. "I want to know how she did it so I can at least try to help him."

"I don't know even know if she's on the Other Side." Elena told us.

"The Other Side, is that's what it's called?" I asked.

"That's what Savannah calls it." Elena remarked.

"Wait, you've been talking to Savannah Fell?" I asked. Savannah was Tina's older sister who died tragically during my freshman year. "So was she a vampire?"

"The council killed her." Elena explained. "I also may have cheated on Matt with her a little."

Hopefully she wasn't cheating on Bonnie with her, even though I was pretty sure that she couldn't actually touch the ghosts despite Vicki almost killing me somehow.

"So it's some sort of supernatural purgatory then?" Ric asked.

"Savannah says it's like they're here but no one can see them or interact with them." Elena added.

"Vicki could interact. She blew up on my car." Ric pointed out.

"Vicki had help from a witch." Elena argued. "The others don't have that."

"I'm just saying that maybe we shouldn't mess with this stuff." He declared.

"Speak for yourself. If I got the chance to talk to my mom again, I'd take it." Anna opined.

"I need this, Ric." I declared. "I'm basically running out of options. Is Savannah here right now?"

"No." Elena remarked hastily. "I have to pee."

She scurried off and I was sure that something was up.

"Hey everybody." Stefan greeted us before taking Elena's seat. "It seems my invitation was lost in the mail."

He grabbed his book and began skim it.

"Look at all these words, I forgot how much I used to care." He stated.

"I didn't." I replied.

"You know Mary, it's not a good idea to hold onto the past. You should just accept it and move on like I have." Stefan replied with that smarmy look at Jenna said Logan used to have.

"You can go now Stefan." Ric told him.

"I could but Mary's here and I need to protect her." Stefan stated.

"I'll protect her." Anna remarked.

"Yeah because you're so good at that." Stefan quipped. "Besides, this place is gonna be crowded and there will be plenty of people to eat. I'm kidding. Lighten up."

He then walked away.

"I can't drop it, Ric." I declared.

A little bit later, I walked into the Grill because I needed to use the bathroom. I opened it to see that see Elena was inside…and she was kissing Savannah.

"Savannah." I stated in shock.

I had to say that I was a bit shocked. I didn't understand how I was seeing her. I supposed that it was possible since I was also brought back to life by a spell. I then reached out and touched her and she was definitely tangible. She had a bright red blush on her face. I also couldn't believe that Elena was cheating on Bonnie with a ghost. Seriously, there was no way that she could possibly think that any sort of relationship would be possible. The sex couldn't be that great or satisfying.

I then got a call from Caroline. I wasn't sure why she was calling me, but answered anyway.

"So we have a bit of a problem." Caroline explained. "Apparently this witch cast a spell that basically allowed ghosts to enter Mystic Falls and interact with people. The good news is that there is a way to stop it, but to do it, we're going to need to destroy your necklace."

"Normally, I would say no, but I just came across a reason that I am completely okay with it." I replied as I looked at Savannah. "Don't tell Bonnie, but I kind of caught Elena kissing Savannah Fell."

"Oh my God." Caroline replied. "So do you know where the necklace is?"

"It's in the boarding house." I answered before hanging up.

One thing that I noticed was that Anna was gone, but I was pretty sure that she would be back soon. I really needed to deal with the problem in front of me first. I looked at my sister.

"Do you have anything to say for yourself?" I asked angrily.

"Don't be mad at her." Savannah said.

"I didn't ask for your opinion. I was talking to my sister." I declared.

"Mary, don't be mad at her. It's not her fault." Elena defended.

"You're right." I agreed before I looked at her. "It's yours. But she needs to disappear or do whatever ghosts do."

Savannah vanished, leaving the two of us alone. I wasn't entirely sure why I was upset since Bonnie and I were even that great of friends. I supposed that I just thought that my sister was better than that.

"Mary, please don't tell Bonnie." Elena begged.

"I'm not going to tell Bonnie." I replied as she breathed a sigh of relief. "You're going to tell her."

I walked outside to see if I could find Anna. Instead I found a long-haired blonde.

"Lexi." I remarked in surprise.

"What a good day it was to be thinking about me, Mary." She replied. "Come with me."

"Where are we going?" I asked as I followed after her.

"I'm taking to your first lesson in Ripper Detox 101." She explained. I assumed that meant she had captured Stefan.

She took me to the old Forbes jail cell. We walked inside and I saw that Stefan was unconscious and chained to a chair. It looked like some crazy stuff was about to go down.

"So what happened?" Lexi asked. I was surprised that she didn't know.

"Klaus compelled him to turn off his humanity." I explained. "So what do we do?"

"We're going to have to convince him to turn it back on." Lexi answered. "Now I want to warn you in advance that some of the things that you are going to see are going to be pretty unsettling. I need to know if you're going to be able to handle this."

"I can deal." I remarked. I still had no idea what she was planning on doing or how long she would be able to be in tangible form. She kicked his chair, waking him up.

"Huh, what's going on?" Stefan asked as he struggled against the chains. "Let me out."

"Hey, use your indoor voice." Lexi instructed. "I need to get inside of your head."

"Mary, will you please get rid of her?" Stefan requested.

"No." I denied. I was still watching intently.

"The first thing that we need to do is dry him out." Lexi told me. "It'll starve away the bloodlust."

"This isn't going to work." Stefan replied as she just stared at him. "You can't do this."

"I hope you're ready, Mary." She stated.

"I am." I confirmed as she continued to stare.

"What are you doing?" Stefan asked before he began to scream in pain. "What are you doing Lexi?!"

"I'm saving your life." Lexi answered as she kept staring at him.

Stefan kept screaming. I think Lexi had created some sort of illusion in his head.

"What are you doing?" I questioned. I didn't think I could do that.

"He's hallucinating." She answered. Yeah that was something that I definitely couldn't do. "That's three months of hunger, now nine, two years, and five."

"Did I ever tell you how much I hate you?" Stefan asked through his teeth.

"Oh, I miss you too." Lexi teased.

At that point, my phone began to ring and I went outside to get the call.

"Hello?" I asked.

"So the necklace isn't where you said it would be." Caroline declared.

"I need you to hold off on sending the ghosts back." I remarked.

"What, why?" She asked.

"Lexi is here and helping Stefan." I explained.

"Well let's just find the necklace and then we can choose between relationship dramas, okay." Caroline replied. "Do you know anywhere else it might be?"

"I know it's in the house." I told her before I hung up.

I went back inside and noticed that Stefan taking a lot deep breaths while Lexi hovered over him.

"Mary, she's hurting me. Make her stop." He begged.

"Don't listen to him." Lexi instructed. "You need to shut him out."

"This is me helping, Stefan." I declared.

"I'll do anything you want." He pleaded. "I'll change. I'll even help you kill Klaus."

"He's lying." Lexi replied. "He'll say anything at this point to get me to stop. Don't let him get to you."

"Mary, please get her to stop." He continued. He began to sweat.

"You can't let your emotions get the better of you." Lexi replied. I felt a little bit I was in a tug-o-war.

"Mary, I love you. I love you so much." He told me. I almost wanted to believe him.

"I don't believe you." I declared.

"I hate you. I hate you, you fucking bitch." He snarled. "I wish I had never met you."

"That's the ripper talking." Lexi noted. "Once he's weakened, you have to make him feel. You have to make him see past the blood."

She stabbed him with a stake in the side.

"This is something that you have to do every day like making coffee." She explained.

"I will rip you apart!" He threatened.

"You can't because I'm already dead." Lexi stated before stabbing him again.

"I need some air." I declared.

I went outside and heard sirens.

"What's going on?" I asked Anna and Elena.

"Some of the tomb vampires killed Mr. Fell." Anna stated before I gave her a hug. I then noticed something in her pocket.

"Why do you have this?" I asked, holding up the necklace. I wanted to be angry, but I also wanted to hear her side.

"I want to see my mom." Anna admitted.

"Anna, I understand that you miss, but if these ghosts are killing people, we have to send them away." I explained as I handed the necklace to Elena. "Take this to Bonnie at the witch house."

Anna began to cry. It wasn't hard to understand why because I had just ripped her dreams away from her.

"It's going to be okay." I told her as I hugged her tightly.

"Annabelle." A voice interrupted us. We turned to see Pearl standing in front of us. Anna ran into her arms and it made me want to cry. I knew that it wouldn't last but I was still happy that she at least was going to get her chance to say goodbye.

Once Anna was done saying goodbye to her mom, I decided to take her downstairs to let her see Lexi and what she was doing to Stefan. She stabbed him once again.

"You wasted your whole life taking care of me and now you're dead." Stefan taunted. She didn't seem fazed.

"You don't have much time left." I said. "The spell is about to be cast."

"I need more time." Lexi argued.

"I can't give it to you." I responded. "As soon as Bonnie gets the necklace, the door will close. The ghosts have started killing people and I can't wait any longer."

"The necklace: you have to remember giving it to her." Lexi remarked. "You loved her even then."

After a few minutes, I felt the air seem to change.

"It's up to you now, Mary." She stated. "You're going to have to be the one to save him."

She disappeared and I tried to figure out how I was gonna do that.

I decided that it would be best for Anna to go wait outside while I talked to Stefan because I didn't want it to feel like I was stabbing her in the heart.

"Stefan, I need you to feel something." I told him. "I need you to feel anything or you're going to lose me."

"What are you just going to stay here and wait like last time?" He asked. There was no way that I could stay.

"No, I'm going to go home and I'm not going to leave the door open this time." I remarked. "When you're ready to feel, I'll let you out."

So I needed someone to help with the plot, so I created a character played by AnnaSophia Robb. Also Anna took the necklace, but got to see her mom. Please don't forget to review.


	8. Going to the Past

I was currently walking through an underground tunnel with Ric. Apparently, Mason's ghost led Damon down there saying that it would lead to a weapon that would kill Klaus.

"Careful where you shine that thing." Ric instructed. "Bats hate the light."

"What?" I asked before I suddenly saw Damon and jumped.

"I thought you said vampires couldn't come down here." I said to Ric. It was why I hadn't brought Anna with me.

"I'm still the one who found it and I want to know what's inside." Damon replied. "Well technically Ghost of Christmas Past Mason Lockwood found it, but he's no longer with us."

We walked further and I noticed a small cave.

"Well this is as far as I go." Damon remarked.

Ric and I stepped forward and we noticed a wall with a bunch of pictures on it.

"What is this?" I asked.

"It's a series of pictographs." Ric explained.

"It seems that even the ancient Lockwoods were anti-vampire." Damon stated.

"What do you mean?" I questioned.

"Well here we have a man, a moon cycle, and a wolf." Ric explained.

"Or as I like to call it, the Lockwood Diaries." Damon quipped.

"But I thought that the Lockwoods came here with the rest of the Founding Families." I remarked. It did look like the town wasn't founded by witches.

"Well maybe the Lockwoods did, but these vampires have been around a lot longer than that." Ric replied. "There's more. This words over here are written in Runic, an old Viking script. This reads Niklaus. We have Freya, Finn, Elijah, Kol, Rebekah, and Henrik."

"How do we know that this isn't just another trick like the sun and moon curse?" I asked.

"That's what I thought until we got to the last name." Damon explained as I looked it over.

"Mikael." Ric translated. I gasped.

"Mikael as in the vampire hunter?" I asked.

"Or as I like to call him Papa Original." Damon said.

We decided that it would be easier if we just took pictures and brought them back to Ric's apartment. I was currently sparring with Damon while Anna and Ric looked the pictures over. I was sparring with Anna because most vampires were closer to his size than mine and Anna's. I wore a short cobalt blue dress with half-length sleeves.

"These images have a story to them." Ric reiterated as I kicked Damon. "We need to decipher them to find out what that story is."

"You're sloppy." Damon remarked as he grabbed my leg and threw me on the mat. "Mason said that it would lead us to a weapon."

"Mikael has a weapon." I pointed out as punched his chest.

"It probably means that the wall will lead us to Mikael, who we've found and lost." Damon replied as he put me in a headlock. "You're dead."

"Waking Mikael was a mistake." Anna remarked. "He's worse than Klaus is."

"The images might at least say what the weapon is." Ric opined as I walked over.

"Let's do that then." I suggested.

"Let me ask the million dollar question." Damon replied as both mine and Anna's phones went off. "How are we gonna do that?"

I looked over my phone and saw that Anna had gotten the same message. I looked at it in confusion.

"Well if it's about the Originals, we'll have to get it from the source." I explained.

Anna and I went to the school where Rebekah had called an impromptu cheerleading practice. She cartwheeled over right in front of us. I also needed to make sure that she knew her place.

"Good, you're here." She stated.

"You don't have the authority to call cheerleading practices." I remarked. "Only Caroline and I have that right."

"Well I did, so what are you going to do about it." She challenged. She brought up a good point. I decided to get down to business.

"I want to talk." I announced.

"About what? Stefan? Don't worry. I'm off him until he starts treating me better." She explained.

"I'm curious to know why you and Klaus have spent a thousand years running from your father." I declared as I showed her the picture.

"I…I need to get back to the girls and so do you." She stammered. "I suppose you can exercise in that if you must."

She started to walk back to the field.

"Maybe I'll just ask Mikael when we wake him." I responded. That got her turn around.

"You're lying." Rebekah replied. "You don't know where he is. No one does."

"I do. I put him there." Anna explained. We just didn't know where he was currently.

"If you wake Mikael, we're all doomed." Rebekah stated. She seemed to agree with Anna. After a few minutes of the why game, she said "Now we need to go."

"Look you may be able to compel everyone else, but you're not taking over the cheerleading squad and practices will only happen during scheduled times." I remarked.

So it seemed my early attempts of trying to befriend Rebekah weren't going so well. I would have to work on that.

After that, I went back to Ric's apartment. I wasn't sure why we couldn't do it at home. Also, why was he still paying for the lease to that place?

"She'll tell me." I told Damon over the phone. "She's afraid of Mikael. It'll just take a little power struggle."

"Let's just hope that she doesn't power struggle you into a wheelchair." Damon quipped. I was pretty sure vampire blood could heal that.

"I have it under control, Damon." I responded. "So how does Stefan look?"

"Pasty and pouty." Damon answered.

"Well he'll have to get over that…can vampires tan?" I asked.

"Yeah, but I'm pretty sure that Stefan has no desire for that." He answered before he hung up.

I then noticed Ric staring at me.

"She'll come around." I promised.

"I just think that a thousand-year-old vampire would know how to wait." He declared before I got a text. I showed it to Anna first and then to him.

"She's a thousand-year-old teenage vampire." Anna pointed out. "Between the two of us we got it covered."

We went to the boarding house to hear that Rebekah was listening to some Christina Aguilera knockoff. I knew that she could afford the real thing. She could probably afford to have Christina Aguilera come over.

"Hey, what's up?" Rebekah asked with a smile and a bottle of champagne. She seemed to be in an oddly good mood. I would think that she was upset with me.

"You invited us over." I reminded her as she put the glasses down. Did she not know that I preferred bourbon?

"Alright girls, have at it." She instructed. What? Suddenly, the cheerleading squad from practice dressed in very expensive-looking dresses of different colors, walked out. "Now twirl."

"Did you seriously compel your own runway show?" Anna asked in disbelief. It looked like I would need some of that champagne after all.

"I need a homecoming dress." Rebekah replied. That seemed to make a lot of sense. "Now pick one."

"We didn't come here to help you shop." Anna replied. "We came to talk about Mikael."

Rebekah then stood in front of Alexandra's neck and prepared to sink her teeth in. The girl looked like she couldn't even speak.

"I said pick one." She ordered.

"That one." I replied. "The one you've chosen."

"Now was that so hard?" Rebekah asked. "Go away, get changed, and remember nothing. I want to be clear. You two will learn what I want you to learn and know what I want you to know."

We then walked upstairs to Stefan's room and I felt like I needed another glass of…really anything with alcohol in it.

"How fun is this?" Rebekah asked

"Why are we in Stefan's room?" I questioned.

"Snooping." Rebekah answered before going through his dresser. "Hmm, boxer briefs, that's a change from the 20s."

"I know what kind of underwear Stefan wears." I stated. "Are you gonna tell me the story?"

"What do you wanna know?" She asked with a sigh.

"Well Elijah said that your father was a landowner in Europe. How did you end up here?" I inquired.

"My parents had just started a family when the plague struck." Rebekah answered. "They lost my sister Freya to it. They wanted to escape and protect their current and future children."

"How did you end up here? This part of the world hadn't been discovered yet." I asked. Well I supposed someone must have. Pearl was here.

"Not by anyone in your history books." Rebekah stated. "My mother knew the witch Ayanna who spoke a beautiful land where everyone was healthy. They had gifts of speed and strength. We lived amongst them."

"So the werewolves were here?" Anna asked. "Was my mother?"

"Her family was and they were just our neighbors." Rebekah said as she flipped through Stefan's diary. "My family lived in peace with them for over 20 years over which my mother had several more children, including me."

"It sounds so…normal." I commented.

"It was." She agreed. "Once a month, our family retreated to the caves. The wolves would howl through the night. One night Nik and my youngest brother Henrik snuck out to watch the men turn into beasts. That was forbidden. Henrik paid the price, and that was the beginning of the end of peace with our neighbors."

"I'm sorry." I apologized. At that point, my phone rang.

"You'd better get that." She said, wiping tears from her eyes. "That'd be Damon checking up on you."

I answered the phone and heard loud noises in the background.

"Where are you?" I asked.

"No idea but I'm pretty sure I'm overdressed." Damon quipped. I then heard a familiar voice.

"Is that Stefan?" I questioned. "Did you let him out?"

"I went off-book." Damon explained. "Don't worry. I know what I'm doing."

Before I could say anything, he hung up.

"So I'm done talking to him. I want to resume." I remarked.

"You know I don't get you too as a couple." Rebekah commented. That pissed me off a little bit.

"That's because you know one side of him." Anna stated.

"I know the only side that matters: the vampire one." Rebekah argued. "The necklace was never Stefan's to give you."

"I know it belonged to your mother." I declared.

"Yes my mother, the one who put the hybrid curse on my brother and the one who turned us into vampires. She was the witch of the Original family: the Original witch." Rebekah explained.

"Why didn't you just leave?" Anna asked.

"Because my father had too much pride. He wanted us to be stronger, faster and to never die." Rebekah answered.

"Am I a witch?" Anna asked.

"You would be if you had been taught, but you cannot be a vampire and a witch." Rebekah explained. "My mother did this for us and did not turn."

"Well how did you turn?" I questioned.

"She called upon the sun for life and the ancient white oak tree, one of nature's eternal objects for immortality." Rebekah told me. "That night my father offered us wine laced with and then he drove his sword through our hearts."

"He killed you?" I asked in shock.

"And he wasn't delicate about it either." Rebekah replied. "We had to drink more blood to complete the transformation. It was euphoric. The feeling of power was indescribable, but Ayanna was right about the consequences. For every strength there would be a weakness. The sun became our enemy. It kept us indoors for weeks and though we solved that problem, there were still others. The very neighbors that had opened their homes to us could now keep us out. The flowers at the base of the white oak tree burned and could prevent compulsion and the spell decreed that the tree that gave us life could also take it away, so we burned it to the ground. But the darkness consequence was something that my parents never anticipated: the hunger. Blood had made us reborn and it was blood that we craved above all. We could not control it, and with that, the predatory species was born."

"So why did Mikael start hunting Klaus?" I inquired as I had a glass of bourbon.

"When Nik made his first human kill, it triggered his werewolf gene." She answered. "And with that, my mother's greatest shame was revealed. She tried to make it right by putting the hybrid curse on him, but it didn't work because Mikael's greatest weakness was his pride. He killed my mother's lover, unknowingly starting a war between species and then killed her. He tore her from her chest while Nik watched."

"He killed your mother" I replied in shock.

"He said that she had broken his heart, so he would break hers." Rebekah declared. "Nik and Elijah stayed behind to help me bury her but Kol and Finn left. We vowed to stay beside each other always and forever."

"That doesn't look like it's holding up too well." I commented. "Elijah's in a box and you're alone here."

"We're vampires. Our personalities are heightened. I'm stubborn, Elijah moral, and Nik…Nik has no tolerance for those who disappoint him. We've all made that mistake at least once." She responded

"I don't understand why you'd stick by him." I admitted.

"I'm immortal. Should I spend my time alone?" She asked. "The story's over. You two can leave. That is why you shouldn't wake Mikael, even though you will anyway."

"It's no secret that I want Klaus dead." I told her.

"Do what you will, but if you come after my brother, I will tear you apart and I get my temper from my father."

I later went back into the cave with Ric and Bonnie.

"We filled in as much as we could." Ric explained. "We got vampire, werewolf, and witch."

"That's the white oak tree that was used for the spell." I explained.

"What we don't know is this. There's a witch with a bleeding heart. Upside down usually means death and then there's this mystery symbol." Ric stated. I looked them over and everything clicked.

"Oh no, Rebekah doesn't know the whole story." I remarked.

I went back to the boarding house with some pictures. She needed to know.

"I told you to leave." She declared.

"How do you know Klaus killed your mother?" I asked.

"Nik was there. He told me." She answered.

"He lied." I explained as I took out the pictures. "This is the symbol for your mother and these mean werewolf and vampire. Together gives us hybrid, leading to the story of her death."

"No." She whispered.

"The hybrid killed the witch." I added.

"No, he couldn't have." She denied.

"Rebekah, Klaus killed your mother and lied so you wouldn't leave him." I stated. "I know this is hard to hear and I'm not saying it to hurt you, but you need to know."

"This can't be true. It's just a stupid drawing on a stupid wall!" She screamed.

"Why are you upset if you don't believe it?" I asked. She threw the pictures into the fire. She then broke down and began to cry. She looked like she needed a hug, but I don't think she wanted one from me.

I went home and saw that Anna was already in bed.

"Damon called and said that he and Stefan managed to get Mikael on our side." She told me. "We'll probably still regret waking him."

"I think I managed to get Rebekah on our side too." I stated. "I just hope this is over soon."

Please don't forget to review.


	9. Going to Homecoming

We were discussing our plan for how to get Klaus to come back. So far it involved Stefan and Rebekah and we would tell Klaus that Mikael was daggered. The first part involved giving the story to Stefan.

"You know Stefan is compelled to listen to Klaus." Damon remarked. "If Klaus asks if Mikael is really dead, this thing could be fully blown open."

"Then I shall be dead." Mikael declared as he appeared with a dagger.

"You want me to dagger you?" I asked in disbelief.

"I'll do whatever it takes to get Niklaus to come here." He replied as he handed it to me. I couldn't help but wonder if anyone ever tested the theory of what happens to a vampire daggering an Original. We couldn't afford to.

I nervously stabbed the dagger into him. I watched as he turned grey and fell to the floor.

After Rebekah had arrived, Stefan then took out his phone and called Klaus.

"You're dad's dead." He declared. "I don't mean your actual father, but Mikael. He's been daggered. What do you want me to do with him? Well he came after Mary and Damon and I vervained him before Mary discovered the dagger and white ash that he planned to use on Rebekah. He's here so come by whenever you like. Yes. That's no problem, she's right here."

He then handed the phone to Rebekah.

"It's true." She replied. It was a bit annoying being the only one in the room that couldn't hear what Klaus was saying. "He's finally out of lives for good. When are you coming home? I miss you. I love you."

She then hung up.

"He bought it." She added. "He's coming back."

"Now was that easy or what?" Damon asked. It seemed a bit too easy.

I then pulled the dagger out and decided to head home. As usual, I found Anna in my bed.

"How'd it go?" She asked.

"Klaus is coming back." I stated. "Hopefully by this time tomorrow, this will all be over."

"You know we'll still have Mikael to deal with afterwards." She pointed out.

"Maybe he'll just live after killing Klaus." I suggested.

"I wouldn't count on it." She replied.

"Well I just want to go to sleep, so move over." I declared.

The following afternoon, I needed to find a dress that I could wear to Homecoming. I was excited about going to the dance, but I did wish that I had a date. Anna and Bonnie were helping me pick something out.

"So should I go with the black or the blue?" I asked as I held two dresses up.

"Blue, because I'll be wearing the black." Anna replied.

"You know you can buy your own dresses or steal them even." I stated.

"Yeah, but we're the same size, so this is just easier." She pointed out. She then looked at Bonnie. "So, how are you?"

"I really don't know how to feel." Bonnie admitted. "I have to be the only person who can honestly say that they were cheated on with a ghost."

Unfortunately, that was probably the case.

"You can be mad at her. I'm mad at her." I explained.

"You're a different kind of mad." Bonnie pointed out. "Elena is your sister. You'll forgive her. I need more time. That's why I wasn't going to go."

"You should come, if only for the fact that we may need you." Anna told her. "Wow. That sounds really insensitive to your humanity."

"I get that I'm the only one around here that can do magic and I accept that." Bonnie stated.

"Elena is definitely an idiot for letting you go." I declared. "I do hope that you can have fun. Anyway, we should probably head to the boarding house."

Anna and I went back there because we knew that Mikael was gone. Strangely Elena came with us for reasons that I wasn't quite sure of. I was helping Damon get the weapons ready while Anna was doing my hair.

"So are we sure that Klaus will bring hybrids with him?" I asked.

"I think it's a pretty safe assumption." Damon replied. "He's not stupid enough to come without an army."

"We still need to make sure that we have that dagger to use on Mikael." Anna replied. "I don't care if he's my grandfather, I don't trust him."

"Okay, I'll go see if I can find it." I replied. I walked down the hall, passing Stefan on my way. What I happened to find was Elena…who had put the dagger inside of Rebekah. "What did you do?"

"There's no way that we can trust Rebekah." Elena replied. "She could betray us like Elijah did."

"Elena we need that dagger in case Mikael betrays us." I argued. "Maybe you shouldn't come to the dance if you're not going to make rational decisions."

At that point, my phone rang. I answered it, noticing it was Caroline.

"What's going on?" I questioned,

"Klaus flooded the gym and dance the cancelled." Caroline explained.

"But I was really looking forward to going." I responded.

"Tyler's moving the party to his house." She replied.

"As long as there's beer, I'm sold." I remarked. That would probably be more fun than just a dance. "We'll be there soon."

I then looked at Elena.

"So the party's at Tyler's house and you're definitely not going." I told her.

I then heard the doorbell ring and went to answer it, hoping it wasn't Klaus.

It was Matt.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I'm here for Rebekah." He replied.

"There's a slight problem with that." I declared. "You date has kind of been daggered, but if you want, you can come with Anna and I."

"Is Elena going?" He asked.

"She is not." I remarked. "She's grounded for daggering Rebekah."

"You grounded her?" He questioned in disbelief.

"Do you wanna go or not?" I asked. "I just have to put my dress on and then I'll be ready."

My dress was a pale blue strapless gown with a netted tail…thing. I had no idea what the fuck it was. My mom bought the dress for me for my 15th birthday.

"You look lovely." Anna replied as I saw her in her black gown.

"Thanks, if I get the chance, I'll save you a dance." I promised.

"Maybe we shouldn't." She argued. "Mary, we know how I feel and we know that you don't feel the same."

"I do love you even if it's not like that." I admitted. "I'm sorry that I don't feel the same."

"Let's just make tonight about killing Klaus." She suggested. "Hopefully we won't have to worry about Stefan screwing this up."

"Maybe his hatred of Klaus will be able to let him overpower the compulsion." I remarked.

"He doesn't hate Klaus." Anna argued. "He can't feel hatred. He's just very annoyed that he has to do whatever Klaus tells him to do."

"We just need to go. Matt's waiting downstairs." I explained. "You know Rebekah might want to kill Elena, meaning I can't take the dagger out unless I can convince her not to do so. Do you know how I can do that?"

"I don't think she'll take kindly to being literally stabbed in the back." Anna opined. "So, Stefan said that we might fail because someone's humanity might get in the way."

"That's not something that we have control over." I told her.

Three of us went to the house and I couldn't help notice that it was the weirdest looking Homecoming that I had ever seen.

"I never thought that I would be here with you." Matt commented.

"It's not like we're on a date or anything." I remarked before I noticed Caroline, who also noticed us and scurried over.

"Oh my God, Klaus is here." She stated. I didn't say anything "I was expecting more a response than that."

"We were kind of expecting him to be." I explained.

"Is that My Morning Jacket playing outside?" Anna asked.

"Why couldn't he have gotten Fall Out Boy?" I questioned.

"They broke up." Anna reminded me.

"He could have compelled them to get back together." I pointed out.

"Where is Damon?" Caroline asked.

"He'll be here later." I responded as I grabbed a can of beer. It was easier to get a buzz when I didn't have to try to get it from spiked punch.

Once I had my drink, I couldn't help but ponder what I was going to do once Klaus was dead. Yes Stefan's compulsion would be lifted, but would it really mean that we could be together again? We would definitely have to talk about it. I seriously doubted that things could just go back to the way that they were. Stefan would probably have to get himself back on animal blood, which I didn't know how long would take and if Anna was right, we would have to deal with Mikael, which would be difficult without the dagger.

I wished that there was someone that I could dance with. I doubted Stefan would do it because humanity Stefan needed to be talked into it. They was probably no shot with no-humanity Stefan. I couldn't help wonder if maybe I could actually see if I did have feelings for Anna. I had always thought of myself as straight, but being with Anna made me feel different than being with any other girl. I could at least explore any possible feelings just to know if there might be a chance, even though it probably would not be fair to Stefan.

"Where's your girlfriend?" Klaus asked as he suddenly appeared.

"Anna's not my girlfriend…and she's getting me a drink." I declared. He handed me a bottle.

"So I guess that I have you to thank for Mikael's demise." He stated.

"I just have quick reflexes." I responded. "It's from cheerleading."

"You seem nervous." He commented.

"I'm not nervous. I just hate you." I remarked.

"I understand you have hard feelings for me killing your aunt, but I'd like to tell you something. People have been trying to kill me for the past thousand years and they've all failed, just like you lot will." He explained. "So ahead, give it your best shot. There's also the fact that my hybrids may feel the need to retaliate if anyone comes at me. I think Damon would make a good first victim."

He then walked away and I realized that we had a huge problem. I was not going to let anyone else die to kill Klaus. I didn't care if someone said that casualties were a part of war, I didn't want any casualties. I realized that there was only one person that I could talk about this.

"Come on, pick up, pick up." I said as I heard it ring.

"What do you want Mary?" He asked me.

"Okay, we have a huge problem." I explained. "I know that you're not supposed to care, but Klaus just told me that if he dies, his hybrids will kill Damon. If you have any emotions in you at all, you need to come here."

"Why do you think that I'll come?" He asked.

"Because Damon told me that you were able to break through Klaus's compulsion slightly when Mikael threatened his life. If your love for me isn't enough to break it, maybe your love for your brother is."

I hung up and suddenly there was a girl with short black hair in front of me.

"Can I help you?" I asked.

"Yes, you're coming with me." She replied as she grabbed me and began to drag me. I suddenly found myself in the front of the house. I was next to Mikael.

"What are you doing?" I asked him.

"I'm improvising." Mikael replied. "Come out and face me or she dies."

I was suddenly getting extremely nervous. Mikael wouldn't really kill me, would he? It was quite possible that he would.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to call your bluff." Klaus stated.

"No one cares about you anymore, Boy." Mikael declared before he stabbed me in the back. It hurt a lot. I fell to the ground bleeding. I still had a chance to survive. If someone got to me, they could heal me. I suddenly had a mouth full of blood and swallowed it to see Anna in front of me. She threw some wolfsbane grenades before Damon stabbed Klaus with a white stake. However, before he could make the kill, Stefan tackled him to the ground.

At that moment, Klaus grabbed the stake and like lightning, stabbed Mikael with it. Mikael screamed before he began to burn. Nothing was left behind, not even the stake.

"What did you just do?" Damon asked his brother.

"He's earned his freedom." Klaus replied. "You are now no longer under my control."

"What the hell happened?" Anna asked me once we were in the car.

"Klaus told me that he would have his hybrids kill Damon if he was killed." I explained. "I called Stefan. I know that this was our chance, but I couldn't let him die. I'm sorry."

"Mary, I know your heart was in the right place, but you might have just screwed us over." She explained.

"I know." I responded. "I think the only good thing that happened from this was that I may have helped Stefan get his humanity back. I don't know if I'm ever going to see him again, but I was right that he would care enough to save his brother."

"I guess I'm just glad that you're alright." She told me. "Now do you see why I didn't want to trust Mikael? You're lucky that I was able to get to you in time."

"Maybe Klaus won't try to kill us." I responded. "He told me that he knew that we would fail. Why would he waste time on us?"

"Well I guess there's nothing else that we can do right now but go to bed." She stated. ""You know if you want, I can sew that dress for you."

"I didn't know that you knew how to sew." I replied.

"It's kind of insulting that you don't think that someone as old as me would have picked up several useful skills over the years." She stated. "Do you wanna dance when we get home?"

"I thought you didn't want us to." I declared.

"Well you had a really bad night and I think you need it." She responded.

So since Katherine couldn't take her place, Mary almost died at Mikael's hands and she also told Stefan and ruined the plan. Please don't forget to review.


	10. Going to Kiss You

Anna and I were running a route for training. Okay, I was running for training and she was running so I didn't have to run alone. I was still nervous about the Klaus thing. As we ran, we passed a guy that I had never seen before. Something just wasn't right about him.

"Okay time to run home." I declared. I almost wanted to just hold her hand while she ran, but I had a feeling that I would get whiplash if I did it. I looked back and noticed that he didn't seem to be chasing us. As we got close to home, it seemed like we were in the clear. That was until I noticed him in front of us. Anna probably could have killed him, but there was no reason to be hostile.

"Sorry." He apologized before he ran away.

"Am I being paranoid?" I asked her.

"Maybe." She admitted.

The two of us then went to work. During our break, we met with Bonnie. At the moment, I actually didn't have any idea where Elena was and I couldn't help but wonder if I should have been worried.

"So I keep expecting Klaus to make a move and he just doesn't." I stated. "I'm so paranoid."

"It's not wrong for you to feel paranoid." Bonnie replied. "He knows you tried to kill him and I don't think he knows that you technically saved him."

"But why hasn't he done anything?" Anna asked. "I'd expect him to go for some kind of revenge."

"Well I keep having nightmares about the witch and there are these four coffins." Bonnie stated. "Klaus is one of them."

"Maybe it's a premonition." I suggested. "Klaus does have three brothers after."

"It's just stress." Bonnie denounced. "I'll figure it out. So have you seen or heard from Stefan lately?"

"No, I haven't heard from him." I declared. "I think that the Stefan we know is gone."

"How's Damon handling it?" Bonnie inquired.

"Badly." Anna replied. I actually hadn't told him that I had called Stefan. "He's hurting more than he lets on."

"That's typical Damon stuff." I told them.

Once we were off break but it was slow, I managed to find Ric and Damon at the bar. Damon seemed to be keen on drinking, whereas Ric wasn't having it.

"What are you doing here if you're not drinking?" I asked my stepfather.

"I was hoping that either you or Anna would know where to find Elena." He replied. "I need to talk to her about her latest history paper."

I noticed the big F on it.

"She copied it off the internet and didn't even try to hide it." He added. I decided to call her a leave a _very nice _voicemail with only a few profanities in it.

I then noticed that Damon was playing darts and I let out a grunt.

"You seem feisty." He commented.

"It's not that I'm mad, but I don't understand what she is doing." I admitted. "I'm worried."

"Why because she cheated on a paper?" Damon asked. "In case you don't know, it's not entirely uncommon."

"But I don't know where she is and Klaus is still out there." I pointed out.

"Klaus probably left town." Damon replied.

"Are you okay?" I questioned.

"Why does everyone think that I'm not okay?" He challenged.

"Well it's noon and you're drunk." I explained. "It's not a good look for you."

"What is a good look?" He replied.

"Damon, for the love of God, stop flirting with me." I remarked. "How many times do I say it'll never happen?"

"He'll probably never get it." A voice interrupted. I froze as I saw Klaus with the guy from before.

"Are you really gonna do this here in front of everyone?" Damon asked. "That's a little beneath you, don't you think?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Klaus replied. "I just came down to my local pub to get a drink with a mate. Get us a round, would you Tony?"

"I suppose you stuck around long enough for happy hour." Damon quipped.

"My sister seems to be missing. I need to sort that out." The Original explained.

"It shouldn't be hard to find a psycho blonde." Damon remarked. I didn't think she was psycho, just damaged.

"The truth is I've grown to like your little town." Klaus admitted as he grabbed a dart. "I'm thinking I might fancy a home here. I imagine you're all wondering how does this affect you and the answer is not in the slightest. As long as I get what I want and everyone behaves themselves, you can keep on living your little lives however you choose. You have my word."

"What the fuck could you possibly want from us?" I asked.

"Well for starters you could start by telling me where I might find Stefan." He suggested.

"Stefan skipped town the second he saved your ass." Damon spat. I still felt guilty about not telling him.

"Well you see that is a shame." Klaus said before he threw the dart hard at the bull's-eye. "Your brother stole from me. I need him found so I can take back what's mine."

"That sounds like it's not our problem." I remarked. He walked in front of me and I tried not to tremble or wet myself.

"Well this is me broadening the scopes, Love." He countered.

After work, Ric, Anna and I were in the kitchen preparing some dinner. If there was one place that Elena would have to show up, it was home. I had changed into a grey-longed sleeved corset dress with pink hose. I made sure to leave it loose.

"You alright?" He asked me.

"I can deal with vampires, werewolves, and Originals, but I don't know how to deal with a delinquent older sister, especially since I used to be a delinquent myself."

"Well it's proof that you care." Anna remarked. At that moment, Elena walked in.

"Hey, just in time, we're cooking dinner." I declared.

"No thanks, I was just passing through." She replied. Where did she have to be?

"I was hoping we would all stay in." Ric stated. "We could have dinner like a normal, atypical family."

"Why?" Elena responded. "Look Tyler's waiting for me outside."

"When did you start hanging out with Tyler?" Ric asked.

"We're friends. What's the big deal?" Elena challenged.

"The big deal is he's sired to Klaus." I explained. "He's bad news, Elena."

"He's right outside and he can hear you." She replied.

"You're not going anymore." Ric declared authoritatively.

"You can't stop me. I'm 18." Elena boasted. At that moment, my concern for her had to have at least doubled.

"You're staying if I have to break your legs." Anna threatened. It was probably a bit much.

"Okay, then Tyler, come in." Elena called outside. I gasped as the hybrid walked in. Having dinner with my ex was bad enough with him being Klaus's little minion.

Tyler took a seat that table. It was very uncomfortable since Elena was the only one who wanted him there.

"So not only do I have hybrid stalkers, but I also have one in my living room." I muttered.

"I can go." Tyler offered. At least he realized that he was not welcome.

"No, stay, there's plenty for all of us." Elena replied.

"Maybe you should check in with your master first." I spat.

"I'm not his pet." Tyler remarked.

"So what's the difference between a sire bond and compulsion?" Ric asked as he took a seat. What is really that important?

"Compulsion is just mind control whereas a sire bond is devotion." Tyler explained.

"So what if Klaus asked you to kill your mother?" Anna quizzed.

"He wouldn't." Tyler argued. "Klaus made it so I don't have to turn anymore."

"So basically you think that everything Klaus says is right." I summarized.

"You sound just like Caroline." He replied.

"I wonder why that is." I quipped. "It's not like you broke her neck or anything. Oh wait, yes you did."

"I'm gonna go." Tyler replied.

I then noticed that Elena hung up her phone. I hadn't even noticed the call. I looked back at Anna as I tried to figure out what to do.

I then noticed that Elena was no longer at the table. I looked outside and saw her standing in the middle of the road. I also noticed that there was a speeding car driving toward her and she wasn't moving. Ric ran out and pushed her out of the way, getting his in the process. It was the same hybrid as before.

"I really need to watch where I'm going." Tony quipped. "I just keep bumping into people."

"What happened?" Anna asked. "I was watching my hands and I heard a…seriously what happened?"

"Who called you?" I said to Elena.

"It was Klaus." Elena stated.

"He compelled you." I replied before Anna grabbed Ric and carried him into the house.

I called Damon since I didn't know who else to call. We put Ric on the couch until he woke up.

"How's Ric?" Damon asked as he entered.

"Dead, but he has his ring." Anna replied.

"Elena, why aren't you wearing your bracelet?" Damon questioned. I hadn't even noticed it was gone.

"Tyler probably convinced to take it off." I remarked. "Klaus must have told him to get you off vervain."

"Klaus said he was trying to send a message." Damon stated. "Stefan stole the rest of the Original family and Klaus wants us to find them. If we find the four coffins, no one else will die."

"So that's what you want to do, give him what he wants?" Elena asked.

"What do you suggest?" Damon questioned.

"We should move." Elena asked. "We need to get as far away as possible."

"We can't move, Elena." I argued.

"We can't just do nothing." Elena remarked. "You can get on me for school or hanging out with Tyler, but I'm right about this."

"Is there any way that we can get his family back?" I asked Damon. "Wait we have Rebekah."

"No, because then she will have to worry about two people that want to kill her." Damon replied. Maybe we could convince Klaus to leave the dagger in her. I decided to call Bonnie up.

"The coffins: they weren't just a dream." I told her. "Klaus's family is in them."

"Mary, you shouldn't get involved with Klaus's business." Bonnie suggested.

"I don't have a choice. He tried to kill Elena." I explained. "I need you to help me find Stefan."

That led to me and Anna going to the old witch house.

"I thought this place was useless now." I commented.

"Well apparently, the witches decided that they hate Klaus as much as we do." Anna remarked. "You know I think I'm going to guard the outside for a while."

I couldn't help but wonder if she was afraid of the witches. I supposed that since they didn't seem to like vampires, it wasn't wrong for her to be.

I went downstairs to see if Stefan was there.

"Stefan, I know you're here." I remarked.

"Leave me alone." He ordered.

"I know that you don't like me and I don't like you, but I need your help." I responded. "Bonnie said that you were here."

"Well Bonnie sucks at keeping secrets." He replied.

"I need you to give Klaus his family back." I told him. "Klaus tried to kill Elena."

"Why should I care?" He asked. "How about you just stop talking?"

I went over and slapped him. He had his humanity back, so I didn't really understand why he was being such a prick.

I walked outside where Anna was still standing.

"So that sounded like it went well." She replied. "Do you want me to talk to him."

I just let a tear roll down my face.

"I'm going to talk to him." She replied. It seemed like Stefan hurting me had helped her get over her fears. "Go talk to your sister and I'll handle this."

I went home to see that Ric was awake. He looked like he was in pain.

"Did you just un-die?" I asked.

"Yeah, how's Elena?" He responded.

"She's okay but pouty." I explained before he sneezed out a handful of blood.

"The ring's not working." He remarked. It was not a good time for Anna to be somewhere else. I decided to do the next most logical thing and called 911.

The EMTS came quickly like they were supposed to. Unfortunately, Tony compelled them to leave.

"Looks like you have to invite me in so I can heal him." He remarked. Suddenly he fell to the ground with an arrow in his back.

"He's not dead." Elena replied as she walked in the house. I wondered what she was doing before I realized that she had grabbed a knife from the kitchen. Before I could say anything, she had decapitated him.

"What the fuck was that?" I asked in shock.

"We don't have time to talk. We need to get him to the hospital." Elena pointed out.

I decided to text Damon to tell him to go to the hospital. I on the other hand decided to go to the boarding house while he was gone. I took the number from Elena's phone and called Klaus.

"I assume you have news of where Stefan is." He replied as he stood at the door.

"Nope, but I know where Rebekah is." I responded. He stepped inside. "Come with me."

I led him to the dungeon where she was lying on the floor in her Homecoming dress with the dagger still inside.

"Who did this?" He asked me.

"Elena." I answered. "When that dagger comes out, she'll want to kill her. I want to guarantee that nothing will happen to Elena."

"Fine, the life of my sister for yours." He agreed. "I might not hurt her, but you have no shortage of loves one. Outside of my niece, there are several other people I could after."

It was kind of sweet how Klaus didn't want to hurt Anna.

"Stefan doesn't care about any of us." I explained. "Threatening him won't do any good."

"We'll just have to see, won't we?" He responded as he grabbed his sister's body and pulled the dagger out.

"By the way, Rebekah wants to kill you for killing your mother." I declared.

I then went home where I met Anna. At that moment, I came up with an idea.

"I need a favor from you." I stated. "I need you to compel Elena to go to stay with some family friends in Denver."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" She asked.

"Elena should get a chance at a normal life." I explained. "She needs it."

I went upstairs and within a few minutes, she joined me in the room. I assumed that she had been successful. She looked upset.

"Do you feel bad for doing that?" I questioned.

"I don't want to." She admitted. "If I was going to feel bad about something, it would be this."

She then kissed me and I kissed her back. We made out for a solid thirty seconds before I pulled away.

"We should get some sleep." I stated.

So the big kiss finally happened and Mary enjoyed it. What does it mean for them going forward? Please don't forget to review.


	11. Going to Party

I woke up early in the morning before going to Ric's apartment, where I proceeded to start beating the crap out of a punching bag. I was a little angry that I let myself kiss Anna. It wasn't because I didn't like it, but I still didn't think that I should have done it.

"Careful, those aren't cheap." He stated. "What's got you so upset this morning?"

"I didn't get a lot of sleep last night." I remarked. I had been thinking about where I actually stood on the sexuality spectrum. I knew that I wasn't gay because I still liked Stefan, but I definitely felt something for Anna. I was also wondering it sending Elena away was the right thing to do.

"I didn't either, but that had to do with dying." He explained.

"Are you okay?" I asked before punched the bag again.

"Yeah, but I think we may need to get the ring repaired." He joked. I wondered if we could actually do it.

"You should probably avoid dying until we can figure out what's wrong it." I quipped. He rolled his eyes at that.

"So I guess Anna's compulsion worked." He stated. "I saw Elena packing this morning."

Once we were done, I changed into a blue lace blouse with a tropical miniskirt and a beaded headband. I almost thought about wearing my cheerleading uniform because of what day it was. I went and met Anna and Bonnie at school where we were decorating Caroline's locker. It was a lot of pink and purple and sparkles.

"I think I'm allergic to this overdose on estrogen." Anna remarked.

"It's what Caroline likes." Bonnie replied. "So where's Elena?"

"I have a feeling that you're not gonna like this." I remarked. It was kind of a big deal and I didn't know how to say it.

"Mary asked me to compel her to leave town." Anna explained. I supposed that was one way.

"What?" The witch asked.

"She's going to be staying with Bob and Sally in Denver." I added. "It's only until we figure this Klaus thing out."

"I can't believe you would do that." Bonnie remarked. Was it really that hard to believe since I had done it before?

"It's not safe for her and she actually say that she wanted to leave town." I replied. "I just decided to give her a little bit of a push. She's still here if you want to tell her goodbye."

I did wonder if I was being a bit selfish in wanting to keep her safe, but Klaus did already kill Jenna and I couldn't allow him to hurt any more members of my family, especially since Elena was the only one left.

One thing that I noticed was that Caroline never seemed to show up. It was strange because every year she always made her birthday a big deal. A Caroline Forbes birthday party was always legendary. It was something people always wanted to go to. As a kid, I went to one as Elena's tagalong and she had ponies. I couldn't think of why she would skip on her birthday. The day after her 18th birthday, I would understand, but not the day of.

The plan was to go to Caroline's house and surprise her because I had to figure why she was so upset. I understood that she was upset because Tyler had broken her heart by basically siding with Klaus but her birthday was a night where she could forget about all of her problems and just have fun and also get really, really drunk. I gathered everyone that go in her house, which unfortunately did not include Anna. It basically left Matt, Tina and Bonnie. Caroline walked in and we took positions.

"SURPRISE!" We shouted. She jumped when she saw us. She was definitely surprised.

"What are you doing here?" She asked.

"Well since you skipped school and didn't see the amazing job that we did, we thought we'd show up here." I explained.

"Get changed into some warmer clothes, because we're going to the Falls." Bonnie ordered. I had put some pants on. "We're going to have cake, campfire and s'mores like we used to."

"But with tequila." Matt added with a stupid grin that got her to crack a smile.

"Thanks but I'm not really feeling my birthday." Caroline stated.

"I'm sorry, but didn't you declare your birthday a national holiday?" Bonnie asked. Maybe that was why she skipped school.

"Well now it's just a reminder that I'm dead." Caroline responded. "I didn't even like 17 and that's age that I'm always going to be.

"Well how about we try something else." I suggested.

I decided that we should take her to the cemetery, specifically to the Salvatore family crypt because I was pretty sure that neither Stefan nor Damon minded.

"This is weird even for us." Bonnie commented. I didn't understand what was so weird about it.

"Caroline's right." I explained. "She's dead, so she doesn't need a birthday, she needs a funeral. We can say goodbye to the human Caroline and welcome the vampire one. You know some countries view funerals as a celebration of a person's life."

"I like it." Caroline stated. "Here lies Caroline Forbes."

"Head cheerleader, junior class president…" I interrupted.

"Friend…" Bonnie continued.

"Daughter…" Tina added.

"Mean girl." Matt replied. I glared at him but she just shrugged. "Sometimes."

"But she was a great person." I finished as I put some candles on the cake. "She was 17 and she had a great life. So, rest in peace so we can move on."

Bonnie lit up the candles and Caroline blew them out. I wished that I could read her mind so I could find out what she had wished for. What would she wish for? Would it be for Tyler not to be sired anymore? I was pretty sure that a simple wish wouldn't be able to break the sire bond. Their love story looked like it was over.

When then began to have some cake. I didn't understand why Matt had to swipe the one kind of alcohol that I completely couldn't stand. I seriously hoped that he hadn't done it for exactly that reason. I didn't understand why everyone kept treating me like I had a drinking problem. I wasn't blowing my family's savings for booze, but I did want something that wasn't tequila.

"What are you doing?" I asked as I looked at Caroline who had her phone out.

"I definitely was not texting Tyler." She remarked. I glared at her. "What, I'm delicate?"

"Leave her alone. You don't decide what everyone does." Bonnie snapped at me.

"What the fuck do you mean?" I asked her angrily.

"You had no right to compel Elena to leave town." She told me. Did she really have to tell them about it?

"I don't trust Klaus not to go after her again." I responded. "She deserves a normal life."

"It's not your choice to make." Bonnie argued.

"I'm protecting her." I pointed out. I wished Anna was there to back me up. I couldn't help but wonder where she was at the moment. I decided to text her.

"Hey, you need to stop fighting." Matt piped in. I stared at him in surprise. "You're ruining a perfectly good funeral.

"I'm gonna go." Bonnie announced. "I'm drunk and I get cranky when I'm drunk."

I then got a text from Anna saying that she was at a fundraiser with Ric and Damon. I couldn't help but wonder if she planned on donating something. I read in the paper that they were planning on rebuilding Wickery Bridge and renaming it The Grayson and Miranda Gilbert Memorial Bridge. I didn't know why they needed to rebuild it. The town was fine without it.

I then got a call from her.

"We have a bit of a problem." She told me. "It turns out that the council is siding with Klaus against Stefan. You have to convince him to back off."

"Stefan doesn't want to listen to me." I stated. "I'd love to help, but there's nothing I can do."

She hung up and I noticed that Caroline was lying on the tablet. It might have been offensive to dead people, but it was kind of funny. Suddenly, Tyler walked in and all of us immediately went quiet and stared at him.

"I didn't mean to crash the party." He stated.

"So don't." Matt told him. It looked like their friendship was also on the outs because of hybridism.

"I need to talk to him." Caroline stated. "Maybe it would just be best if we went outside."

I then realized that her holding onto hope that Tyler could be fixed wasn't much different than me holding onto hope that Stefan would go back to being the way that he used to be. I had to admit that I still wanted the Stefan that knew back, however unlikely it was.

"Okay, so do you wanna play cards?" Tina asked Matt and I.

"You brought some cards with you to a funeral?" I questioned in disbelief.

"Well I've had them in my purse for a while, but don't really have many chances to use them." She explained. "How about some poker?"

"I think we should go get Caroline." I remarked. "You can stay here while Matt and I go look for her."

"You don't think that they'll be making up and having sex out here, do you?" I asked. Matt just looked at me. "Tyler tried to convince me to do it and I found him doing it with Vicki."

"I'd rather not think of that." Matt replied.

All of a sudden, Stefan showed up and knocked Matt to the ground before he grabbed me and dragged to his car and put me in the front seat. He buckled my seatbelt before he began to drive rather quickly.

"Where are you taking me Stefan?" I demanded as he continued to speed. Didn't any of the deputies actually do traffic patrol. I didn't think that he would stop, but someone had to car that he was driving way over the speed limit.

My phone started to ring and I saw that it was once again Anna. Before I could answer it, Stefan grabbed it.

"Your girlfriend's a bit busy now." Stefan replied. Did he know that we had kissed? I had to admit that it was a bit ironic that they had switched roles.

"What did you do to her?" Anna demanded. I could hear it because it was on speaker.

"I'm making my next move." Stefan explained. "I have a question for you. How will your uncle feel when he can't make any more hybrids?"

I had a really bad feeling about what he planned on doing. Stefan wouldn't kill me, would he?

"Let her go!" Anna commanded. Stefan hung up and then chucked my phone out the window. I probably should have gotten it insured, but I didn't expect my ex-boyfriend to kidnap me and throw it out of a speeding car.

"So what's the plan Stefan?" I asked him. "Are you going to kill me? You know that there a lot of quicker ways than a car accident. You could just break my neck."

"I took Klaus's family so he would suffer, but he cares more about making hybrids than anything." He explained. That still didn't answer the question of why he didn't just kill me.

He then took out his phone and called someone that I was assuming was Klaus. His phone was not on speaker.

"Tell your hybrids to get out of town." Stefan ordered. "I have Mary with me right now. I'm going to drive her off Wickery Bridge and you won't be able to make any more. I will do this."

Stefan then broke away from the call, bit into my wrist and fill my mouth with his blood. He actually did plan on killing me but letting me drown in the same place as my parents.

"I just fed her my blood. You can't make hybrids if she's a vampire." Stefan declared. "Now get your hybrids out of town."

He hung up the phone and stopped just before driving off of the bridge. I unbuckled my seatbelt and got out and he did the same.

"You bastard." I declared. "You fucking bastard. How could you?"

"He had to believe that I would do it." Stefan replied.

"Stefan my parents died here! Elena almost died here!" I shouted as tears began to rain from my eyes.

"He backed down." Stefan pointed out. "I can take everything from him just like he took everything from me."

"He didn't take everything from you." I responded. "You had me. I loved you. I tried to save you."

"I lost you as soon as I left town with him." He stated.

"Give me the keys." I ordered. "Give me your fucking keys."

"Let me take you home." Stefan replied.

"Do you honestly think that I trust you to drive me anyway after that?" I asked. "Give me the keys and I will drive myself home. I'll leave the keys in the car for you to pick up later."

He handed me his keys and I got in the driver's seat. I obviously had to go in reverse. I really wished that there was a way to get his blood out of my system. I still couldn't believe that he would do that to me. He had to do the one thing that would make me hate him. I didn't understand why he wanted me to hate him. I spent so much effort trying to save him. Why couldn't he have just been grateful like a normal person would be?

I went home and found Anna who probably gave me the tightest hug that she could without crushing my bones.

"I'm fine, Anna." I assured. "As convincing as he was, I don't think that actually planned on killing me."

She grabbed me and tried to give me another kiss.

"Anna, we can't do this." I told her. "It isn't right and I'm not saying that just because you're a girl."

"Mary, I get it. You need more time." She replied. "You're wrong though. It's not that us being together is wrong. It's just that it's not right now. I'll sleep on the couch tonight."

So Mary made it back from her almost near-death experience only to reject Anna. But we know that things will get better from there. Please don't forget to review.


	12. Going to Carolina

I went to the witch house with Bonnie with coffins in front of me. I wore a white camisole with a blue blazer and black leggings and black high-tops.

"I've been dreaming about these." Bonnie stated. "I've been trying to figure out what they mean."

"Why are you telling me about this?" I asked.

"Stefan didn't want you to know because he thought Klaus would threaten you." She explained.

"That still doesn't explain why you're telling me. I thought I'd be the last person that you'd tell." I stated.

"Although I'm still mad at you, I think I need your help." She replied. "My dreams have been telling me that the fourth coffin will have a weapon to kill Klaus."

At that point, Stefan appeared.

"What the hell is she doing here?" He asked.

"I need her to know about this." Bonnie argued.

"I needed you to keep her out of it." Stefan responded.

"What are you gonna do Stefan? Kidnap me again?" I asked.

"Don't tempt me." Stefan warned.

"I know who can open the coffin." Bonnie mediated. "I need Mary to help me."

Bonnie then took out as an old picture of herself with her mother. It was the first time I ever saw her.

"Who is this?" Stefan asked.

"My mom." The witch replied.

Bonnie and I went to the house and began to look at pictures of every African-American Abby Bennett in the country. There was a surprisingly high number of them. Bonnie was looking each one over to see if she could find a match.

"What are you doing?" Anna asked as she came downstairs. She had slept in.

"We're trying to find my mom." Bonnie explained.

"She lives in Monroe, North Carolina." Anna replied. "I haven't spoken to her in years, but I know that's still there. She's not any of these because she goes by Abby Bennett-Wilson."

"You know my mom?" Bonnie asked in surprise.

"When you go to see, could you not tell her about how I kidnapped you?" She replied.

"You know you can come with if you want." I offered.

"I don't want to distract Abby from what this is about." Anna stated.

"I still can't believe that I'm going to see a woman who bailed on her family." Bonnie remarked.

"Are you sure that you want to go?" I asked her. "I know that there are bound to be some issues there."

"I was bound to run into her sooner or later and if she helps us kill Klaus, then I need to see her." Bonnie replied. "Let's just go. I do want to see her, if only to know why she left."

I knew that the car ride there was going to be awkward. She was going to be driving and I was going to be navigating. I found out that Monroe was about 45 minutes away from Charlotte. It was going to be the first time that I was going to North Carolina since I was kidnapped….by Rose and Trevor. I really needed to find a way to stop getting kidnapped.

"I can't believe that I'm going to meet her." She stated.

"I don't really know anything about your mom." I declared.

"There's nothing to say. I don't even have any memories of her." She replied. "So I guess things really are over between you and Stefan."

"If I tell you something, do you promise not to tell anyone else?" I asked.

"What is it?" She inquired.

"I kissed Anna." I explained. "Well technically, she kissed me, but I kissed back and it was a little bit steamy. I don't want Stefan to know."

"Speak of the devil." She replied as her phone began to ring. "I don't wanna answer it, but he'll just keep calling."

I took the phone and answered it.

"What do you want, Stefan?" I asked.

"Did you find her?" He questioned.

"No we didn't, so we were going to the lake house." I remarked. "Now stop calling."

"Okay, have fun." He told me. He seemed awfully calm about us not finding her. I supposed that it wasn't very important because it was one less thing that we would have to worry about.

We arrived at the house shortly after and pulled into the driveway, but she wasn't getting out.

"This place looks nice." I commented.

"Yeah, if you like living in the middle of nowhere." Bonnie quipped.

"You realize that we don't live very far from nowhere ourselves, don't you?" I asked. We got out of the car and prepared to knock on the door.

"Hey there." A cute young man greeted us as he walked toward the front.

"We're looking for Abby Wilson." I replied.

"She's not here. Can I help you with anything?" He asked. He then looked over Bonnie. "I'm sorry, but you look very familiar."

"Abby is my mom." Bonnie explained.

"Oh." He replied. "I'm Jamie."

Was he Jamie Wilson? We both stepped inside and took a seat in the kitchen.

"Can I get you anything?" Jamie asked. "We have OJ, coconut water, some herbal tea, and milk."

"Milk is fine." I answered.

"So are you my brother?" Bonnie questioned. I supposed it would be nice to know.

"No, Abby isn't my mom." Jamie stated as he brought us our drinks. "She dated my old man. He was a deadbeat, so when he left, she took me in and put me through school. Eventually, I took her name."

"She sounds great." Bonnie commented.

"Jamie, whose car is out front?" A woman asked as she walked in. It was her.

"It's mine." Bonnie answered before Abby walked over to her. "I don't know if you remember me, but I am your daughter."

"Hello Bonnie." Abby replied.

I noticed that Bonnie really wasn't showing the amount of emotion that I would expect a person who was just reunited with their long lost mother to show. I couldn't believe that she was being so stoic. Sure, I hadn't reacted much to seeing Isobel, but I already knew a lot about her. I hoped that Abby wasn't like her.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked.

"I just need her help, not her." Bonnie stated.

"I hope you two are hungry because food has been my number one icebreaker." Abby declared. "I'm glad you two are friends. You know I was friends with your mother, Mary. Miranda and I were best friends even."

"So you had a daughter and a best friend and you still left?" Bonnie asked her.

"I left because of my friend." Abby explained. "Fifteen years ago, a vampire came looking for the doppelganger. No one could kill him, so I lured him out of town and cast a spell to desiccate him with the help of another vampire."

"Mikael." Bonnie replied.

"It took all of my power to stop him." She added. "I haven't been able to do magic since."

"You didn't come back either." Bonnie pointed out.

"It wasn't that simple." Abby argued. I couldn't help but wonder if I should stay out of the family moment.

"We shouldn't have come here. She has no magic." Bonnie remarked. I heard her myself. I decided that they needed to talk it out and I would go see Jamie in the barn. However, before I got there, I came face-to-face to with Stefan.

"Hi, Mary, how's the lakehouse?" He asked. How had he found out where we were?

I decided that the best thing to do would be to go to the barn.

"How long did you think that you could this from me?" He asked.

"To be honest, I just didn't want to see you." I remarked icily.

"This is why I didn't want you to know about this." He replied. At the moment, I would probably choose Anna, even though I didn't know if I was ready for that.

"It must have been fun just to not care about things." I quipped. He kicked a chair in response. Well he definitely had his emotions back, but I still couldn't figure out why he was being such a dick.

"Is everything alright out here?" Jamie interrupted. Him intervening was not going to do anybody any good.

"We're fine. Go back inside." Stefan instructed.

"I wasn't asking you." Jamie replied as he got in Stefan's face.

"Jamie, just go inside." I instructed. I didn't want him to get hurt.

"No." Jamie stated.

"Go inside before I kill you." Stefan compelled.

"Do you realize how much of an asshole you are right now?" I asked.

"I'm doing what needs to be done, Mary." He declared.

"So how is being an asshole to fight an asshole working out for you?" I questioned.

At that point, Jamie reappeared with a shotgun and fired at Stefan. I was surprised and confused. Stefan screamed in pain and I realized that there were wooden bullets or whatever you put in a shotgun.

The next thing that I knew, Jamie was tying me to a pole. I couldn't believe that I had been kidnapped yet again. The fact that it was by a human only made it worse.

"What are you doing?" I asked him. I looked at Stefan who was clearly in pain. "He needs help."

It was at that moment that I noticed Abby was taking an unconscious Bonnie to her car. I was pretty sure that she hadn't been compelled. What was going on?

Jamie went to help her as I tried to get free. I managed to reach my keys around my neck to try to cut through the ropes.

"Jamie, let us go." I pleaded.

"No, I can't." Jamie argued. "Some guy told me that if anyone interfered, I was supposed to shoot them and if Abby didn't find out where the coffins were, I'm supposed to shoot myself, but I don't know why."

"What did he say about me?" I asked.

"I'm not supposed to hurt you." He replied.

"Well these ropes are hurting me." I replied. He walked closer and began to loosen them and I took the opportunity to kick him in the nuts. I then wriggled free and took the gun from him and whacked him with it to knock him unconscious.

I walked over to Stefan who was still in a lot of agony.

"What do I do?" I asked.

"Just get it out, Mary." He ordered. I reached into his chest and began to pull the shards of wood out.

"Can you shut up? You're making it hard to concentrate." I replied.

"Just get it out." He repeated as I pulled the last piece out. He definitely would owe me for doing it. It was pretty disgusting and also pretty messy. I felt sorry for Jamie. He obviously didn't know what he was doing. I then handed the gun to Stefan and he proceeded to snap it half, preventing anyone else from being shot with it. We still had the problem that we didn't know where Abby had taken Bonnie.

"You've changed." He commented.

"If you had paid any attention before, you would have noticed that." I pointed out. "So I don't know why I'm about to say this, but I kissed Anna. No I made out with her. I'm not saying it because I'm sorry, but I just thought that you should know about. I don't want to know what your opinion of it is."

He actually looked quite hurt by it. I didn't think he cared, but now it was that his humanity was back. He got up and walked off. I felt like the need to talk to him. I knew that I couldn't just let this go. I couldn't just let him walk away. I needed to talk to him.

As for what I was going to say, I wasn't exactly sure. He was standing by his car. I couldn't help but wonder if I would need him to give me a ride home. I was worried about Bonnie, but I didn't want to spend the night in North Carolina.

"Stefan, say something." I remarked.

"It was wrong for me to kidnap you." He declared. "I also know that even considering driving you off that bridge was too much."

"Thanks for apologizing." I stated. It seemed that we had worked through it quickly.

"But you shouldn't have lied to me." He stated. "If we're going to do this, we need to be on the same page and that means no lying to each other. We can't kill Klaus if we can't even stop being duplicitous long enough for us to work together."

I realized that he was right. Without a bond of teamwork, we would basically be the cast of _Pirates of the Caribbean. _We would have to tell each other the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

"I just wanted to give Bonnie a chance to reconnect with her mom." I admitted. "She deserved it, even though it really didn't happen. It turns out that her mom doesn't even have any magic. I guess this trip was a fucking waste of time."

"I don't think that the witches would give Bonnie a dream like that if her mother wasn't able to help her." Stefan replied before he received a text. "So there's been a development. Klaus came looking for the coffins and Damon only had time to get one of them out. Basically, Klaus has his brothers back, but we still have the weapon in the fourth coffin, whatever it is."

"I supposed that's the only one that matters." I replied. "Is there anything else you have to tell me?"

"Damon decided that it would be a good idea to free Elijah." He added.

Abby returned with Bonnie and it seemed like everything was right. I decided to go back with Stefan because I wanted them to ride together without my presence distracting them.

I met up with Anna when I got home. I knew that I wanted to ask her how her day had gone.

"So we got Abby back." I replied. "I kind of forget to mention you because there was a dose of drama that we had to deal with."

"Well there was a bit of drama here too." She stated. "Damon thought it was a good idea for us to accuse this doctor of being a murderer, but she captured me and stole about three pints of my blood."

"Well you could have been a lot worse off." I responded. "At least no one killed you. I told Stefan about us. He knows."

"Please tell me I'm not going to have to kill him." She remarked.

"No, I want us to be on the same side." I told her.

So there was a little bit of Mary and Stefan and a little bit of Mary and Anna in this chapter. Anna knows Mary's mom, but they probably still won't have the chance to talk. Please don't forget to review.


	13. Going to Find Out

In the morning, Anna, Ric, and I were having breakfast. It was still weird not having Elena there. I was wearing a navy dress with crimson and white polka dots on the front with a pleated skirt.

"It's so weird without Elena here." I commented.

"Are you regretting sending her away?" Anna asked.

"No, but I miss seeing her." I admitted.

Suddenly the doorbell rang. I answered it and found Sheriff Forbes. Ric and Anna came out as well.

"Sheriff, what are you doing here?" I asked.

"This is a very interesting conversation we're about to have so I need you to back me up." She explained. She held up a bag with a stake in it. "I assume by now that you've heard our medical examiner Brian Walters was murdered."

"Yes." I stated, wondering what it had to do with us.

"We've been investigating and found this in his heart." She added.

"That's one of ours." Ric stated. How did he know that? "It's from the lakehouse."

"That's why I'm here." The sheriff replied. She looked at me. "We found one set of fingerprints on it: yours."

Was I being framed for murder or something? Who would do that?

"Are you here to arrest me?" I stammered.

"No I don't think that you did it." She told me. "I think it was either done by a vampire or someone wearing gloves."

I decided that it would be a good idea to call Damon to let him know.

"So you're a murderer now?" He teased.

"She doesn't think that I did it." I replied. "She just wants to find out who could have used one of my family's weapons."

"I think you need to check into that doctor. There's something fishy about her and he was her ex." Damon pointed out.

"I don't think that it was her." I declared. "I have a few suspects of my own."

I decided to go and see one of them. I took Anna with me to go to the underground tunnels because I figured that he was down there trying to get Bonnie and her mom to do the spell to open the coffin.

"Did Abby mention me at all?" Anna asked.

"She just said that a vampire helped her." I explained. "So did you happen to my mother too, or did you meet Abby later? Well my mom couldn't have known that you were a vampire."

"I didn't even know her. I met up with Abby in Charlotte." She replied.

We noticed that Stefan was coming out of the tunnel.

"What are you doing here and why are you with her?" He asked.

"I wanted to know how the thing was going with Bonnie and her mom." I lied. I didn't want to accuse him right off the bat.

"It's not really going anywhere." Stefan replied.

"Did you kill the medical examiner?" I asked as he turned to leave. He then faced me. "Brian Walters. I know you like right the names down."

"Why would you think that I did?" He responded.

"Because I'm not entirely sure who you are anymore." I declared.

"I didn't but you don't have to believe me." He pointed out.

"I don't want to believe that you killed him." I countered.

"Yet, you had to ask me anyway." He declared. "Did you ask Damon or Anna?"

"I haven't killed anyone since I got here." Anna remarked in offense. Well she would have killed Mason if I hadn't stopped her but for the most part, it was true. I guess she killed Ben, but that was to turn him.

He then walked away and I sighed. At that point, I received a text from Caroline saying that she wanted me to meet her at the hospital to pick up her dad. I wasn't sure why that was a two-person job, but I agreed. I supposed it would give me a chance to examine Dr. Fell. I wasn't ready to accuse her because I could lose my friendship with Tina if I was wrong. Although, her stealing blood from Anna was kind of fishy even if she only used it to help people come back from the brink of death.

"Hi, Dr. Fell." Caroline greeted her.

"Caroline." She responded. She seemed nice enough.

"I'm here to check my father out." Caroline announced.

"Can you tell him to be a little more grateful?" The woman suggested. "He threatened to have my license revoked."

"Yeah, my dad's not so keen on the whole vampire thing." Caroline declared.

"It must be hard when your dad hates the one thing that you can't change about yourself." The doctor stated. Caroline looked at her. "I like to know who the vampires are."

"So can I take him home now?" Caroline asked. She probably should asked that from the beginning.

"I discharged him last night so he would leave me alone." Dr. Fell replied.

"He didn't call me." Caroline said as she took out her phone. She called him and began to walk down the hall. "I hear it."

We headed down the corridor and I started to hear it too. We went into a room that said "Keep out" and found Bill was on the floor with a knife in him.

"Oh my god, please don't be dead." Caroline cried as she pulled the knife out of him. He definitely looked dead but I remembered something.

"Caroline, Dr. Fell gave him some blood." I reminded her. As if on cue, he woke up gasping for air.

From there, we took him into one of the rooms. Caroline compelled a nurse so no one would come in. We were definitely in a weird situation. The Forbes family was about to become a lot more interesting. I watched as Bill cleaned him up.

"My wound is fully healed." He explained.

"Maybe you should sit down." Caroline suggested.

"I can't my pulse is racing because my body wants to complete the transition." He explained. He seemed to be handling it better than Vicki had.

"Did you see who attacked you?" I asked.

"I didn't see anything." Bill answered. "I tried to sneak out the back and someone came and attacked me from behind."

That definitely made things difficult. I wondered if the same person that attacked Brian Walters.

"We'll figure this out but first we need to get you some blood." Caroline stated.

"I don't want any blood." He argued.

"But if you don't get any blood, you'll die." She pointed out. He probably already knew about that.

"I'm well aware of what will happen." He stated. "Now get me out of here because I smell blood everywhere."

I called Ric to let him know about the attack. He told me to grab the knife and come back to house. I grabbed a paper towel so my fingerprints didn't wind up on another murder weapon and wrapped it up before going back to the house. I noticed that Anna wasn't there. I also noticed that Ric had several of the weapons out. I still didn't understand how he was able to tell what went where. Maybe it was because he was better organized than I was or something.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm taking inventory." He remarked. "Did you get it?"

"If you mean did I steal evidence from a crime scene, then I definitely did that." I replied as I took out the knife.

"This was located in the crawlspace, meaning Meredith would know where it was." He stated. That was coincidence.

"Do you think that she did it?" I inquired.

"Well these stakes were in a duffle bag in Damon's car." He explained, taking out a similar stake. "That meant that Meredith had access to them on the night of the Wickery Bridge Fundraiser."

"But Meredith saved Bill Forbes." I pointed out as I began to pace. "Why would then go around and kill him?"

"I don't know, but I think that we would be idiots to ignore the signs like this." He replied. "It looks like Meredith is our number one suspect."

"So what should we do?" I questioned.

"I think that you should take this knife to Sheriff Forbes." He instructed. "You should probably also be with Caroline right now."

I grabbed the knife and drove to the Forbes house. I found that Caroline was outside waiting on the porch. It was too bad that Bonnie was too busy with the spell because Caroline could probably really use her.

"My mom's in there with my dad." She explained. "It's the first time that I remember them being in the same room since they got divorced."

I didn't know what I was supposed to say. I didn't couldn't help but wonder if it was what the families of people with incurable cancer felt like.

"So do you think Dr. Fell did it?" She asked.

"Well we have a lot of evidence against her right now." I remarked. "I don't know who else could have. I told your mom about it."

"Do you think that there is any chance that Tyler did it?" She questioned. Her opinion had really fallen off a cliff. "Klaus could have told him to."

"I don't think that Klaus has seen Tyler." I responded. "Didn't he leave town again?"

"Do you think you can get me a blood bag?" She questioned.

"Caroline, he already said that he didn't want it." I pointed out.

"Well I can't just let my dad die." She argued.

"All that he has right now is his choice." I stated. "You have to let him keep it. I understand it because he's your dad. If I had the chance to save my dad, I would do it too."

"What was the hardest part about losing him?" She asked.

"It's all of the things that you know that he won't be there for." I declared. "All of the birthdays, graduation, prom, marriage."

At that point, Matt showed up. I still couldn't help but wonder where Anna was. She wasn't answering my messages. What was she doing that she wasn't able to answer her phone? Matt did the best thing that he could do and gave Caroline a hug as she cried on his shoulder. I couldn't help but wonder if there was any chance of the two of them getting back together. There probably wasn't since Matt still wasn't too big on vampires.

It was too bad that Tyler wasn't around because we actually might have been able to use to sniff out the culprit. I knew that werewolves could smell vampires and if it was a person, they could probably smell them too.

"Hey, Matt do you think that you can take me home?" I asked. It seemed like he was the best that I could get in terms of protection.

I knew that I didn't want to be there when Bill died. I had already lost enough of my own family members to worry about anyone else's.

"So do you really think that Dr. Fell is the one who did it?" He asked.

"All I know is that everything is pointing to her." I replied. "I mean the only people who knew where the weapons were her and Alaric, and it's not like he did it."

"So are you okay?" He asked. "You've lost more people in the last year and a half than most people do in thirty years."

"Yeah, I'm fine." I lied. "I don't wanna talk about it."

Once we got to the house, I noticed that the door was open. I went inside and saw that all of the lights were out. I tried to turn them on, only to find that they wouldn't. I also noticed that there was blood on the walls. We headed upstairs and found Alaric stabbed. I rushed over and pulled the knife out.

"Did you see who did this?" I asked.

"No, but Mary, I need you to kill me." He requested. That was something I did not hear every day.

"What?" Matt responded.

"It's his ring." I stated. "I can activate because I am supernatural."

I took the knife and stabbed it into him. I stabbed him repeatedly until I was sure that he was dead.

"Mary, he's dead." Matt told me.

I decided to wait by the body for him to wake up. I called Sheriff Forbes to tell her about the attack.

"I looked into it, Mary. Meredith Fell was called into surgery six hours ago and there was an operating room full of witness." She explained. That didn't make any sense.

"But if Meredith didn't do it, who did?" I asked.

"I don't know, but that makes it the third attack on a member of the council." She stated. "And we just cleared our only suspect."

Matt then came back into the room.

"Caroline called." He replied. "She said that her dad died."

"You don't have to stay here with me." I told him. "I'll be fine by myself."

"What kind of friend would I be if I left you here?" He asked. Well he was definitely the good kind for staying. I probably would not have done it.

At the point, Ric woke up gasping for air. A few minutes later, Anna walked in the door.

"Where have you been?" I asked her angrily. "I have been calling you all night. Caroline's dad died and I needed to talk to you. What were you doing that was so important that you couldn't pick up the phone?"

"I was with Stefan." She answered. "And Klaus…and Elijah. We were trying to make a deal to get him out of town and when that failed, we ended up releasing the rest of the Originals. I got to see my father for the first time in a while, but he was a bit occupied with Klaus to pay attention to me."

It was at that time that I got a text from Bonnie. She and her mother had gotten the coffin open but they both passed out and whatever was inside was gone by the time that they left.

"So what happened here?" Anna asked.

"Someone came and attacked me." Ric explained. "I didn't get a chance to see who it was."

"Well Sheriff Forbes said that Meredith has an alibi, so it couldn't have been her." I explained. "Now we're back to square one."

So we'll get to see some real interactions between Anna and Kol in the next chapter at the ball. Maybe Mary and Anna will get a chance to dance together. Please don't forget to review.


	14. Going to a Ball

I was at the hospital because Meredith suggested that I bring Ric in. I was sure of the point because his wounds probably would be healed. I was pretty sure that the ring being broken was a one-time thing. Matt was with me.

"So are you sure that you're okay with going home by yourself?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." I promised before he got in his truck and drove off. I prepared to get in my own car. However, before I could get inside, I was slammed against the door. I noticed that the culprit was Rebekah. She seemed to be back.

"Hello Mary." She greeted me. "I want you to tell me where your sister is so I can stab her in the back with a dagger."

I thought that me getting stabbed in the back would make up for that.

"I'm going to enjoy this." She remarked.

"Leave her alone." Elijah ordered. Rebekah ran off. Was he my knight in a suit? "It seems that we have much to discuss."

He told me a lot of information. I was surprised by more than a little of it. In fact, I couldn't believe how some of it was possible.

In the morning, I invited the Salvatores over to explain. Anna and I were dressed to work.

"It was their mother Esther in that coffin." I stated.

"You mean my grandmother as in the one that Klaus killed?" Anna asked.

"How is she still alive if Klaus ripped her heart out?" Damon questioned.

"She probably had some kind of help from some other witches." I guessed. "She said that she wants to make peace with her family, including Klaus."

"She was supposed to be the weapon to kill Klaus." Stefan pointed out. It didn't seem like that would happen.

"Is anyone else feeling a little used right now?" Damon asked.

"Well Elijah promised me that his family wouldn't bring me any harm." I declared. Suddenly, the doorbell rang. There was a letter addressed to me.

"What is it?" Stefan asked.

"It's an invitation. Please join the Mikaelson family tonight at 7:00 for dancing, cocktails, and celebration." I read. The cocktails part definitely made me interested. Plus it was a ball and I'd never been to one of those.

"I'm gonna guess that I'm expected to be there." Anna commented.

"So not only are they moving here, but they're throwing a housewarming party." Damon quipped. We didn't need his banter.

"Wait there's more." I remarked as I turned the card over. "Mary, I think it's time that we finally meet, Esther."

"She tried to kill you once." Damon reminded me.

"I need to see her." I argued.

"I'm with Mary." Stefan replied. "The witches wanted Bonnie to open that coffin for a reason. We need to find out what that is."

"Well we need to get to work, so bye." I declared as I pulled Anna the door.

Once we got there, we found Caroline was there with an invitation of her own from Klaus. I knew that he given her his blood, but what the fuck?

"You got one too?" I asked as I went to take her order.

"Why are they even throwing a ball?" She replied. "The only reason that I can think of is some twisted Cinderella fetish."

"They're old than Cinderella, a lot older." I pointed out. "They're rich and they're old fashioned."

"So why does the bad witch want to talk you?" She inquired.

"That's why I need to find out." I declared. "I kind of wished that I had a date. You wanna be my date?"

"I think Stefan would look better in a tux." She quipped. At that point, Rebekah walked in. I really hoped that I wouldn't have to wait on her.

"What are you doing here?" I asked her. "I'm not telling you where Elena is."

"Not everything is about you, Darling." Rebekah stated before she went over to Matt. She appeared to have an invitation for him.

"Why is she asking him?" Caroline questioned in confusion.

"Probably to get this reaction from us." I declared. "So do you know what you want to order or should I come back?"

That night I went to the ball in a black strapless gown with matching gloves. Anna entered beside me in a royal blue strapless gown with a black underskirt. Her hair was tied up in an elegant bun.

"You look good in blue." I told her.

"Well you look good in black." She remarked. It was then that I noticed Stefan wearing a tux.

"Hello, Mary, Anna." He greeted.

"So you're looking for my mother." A British voice started. It was a young man with spiky brown hair. "Annabelle, wouldn't you like to introduce me to the girl that has stolen your heart?"

"This is my father, Kol." Anna replied. I was suddenly very nervous.

"I'd like to have a few words with you myself." Kol declared.

"Kol, leave the girl alone." Klaus told him. He then bowed before me. "I see that you've made it. Both of you look exquisite tonight."

At that moment, Caroline walked in.

"Excuse me." Klaus replied before he walked away.

"I'm gonna go get some drinks." Anna stated.

Once she was gone, another guy I had never seen before appeared. He was older with his hair neatly-styled. Something told me that he was the last brother.

"Mary Gilbert, I presume." He declared. "I'm Finn Mikaelson. My mother wishes to speak to you."

"Where is she?" I asked as I looked around the room.

"I request that you do not bring your friends." He replied.

"They just want to protect me." I stated.

"Nevertheless, if you want to see my mother, you'll do it alone." He remarked.

"If everyone could gather please." Elijah announced. Finn walked over and joined the rest of the Originals on the stairs, which also included Anna. It did seem nice that she could be included in their family stuff, but I hoped that they didn't expect her to move in with them. I also noticed a woman, Esther. "Welcome, thank you for joining us. You know whenever my mother brings our family together like this, it's tradition for us to commence the evening with a dance. Tonight's pick is a centuries old waltz. So if all of you could find yourselves a partner. Please join us in the ballroom."

At point, I noticed Esther was going upstairs. I headed for the staircase when Damon stood in my way.

"You're not going up there." He told me. It was definitely bothersome.

"She wants to see me alone." I declared.

"Well then you're not seeing her." He replied.

I grunted and headed to the dancefloor.

"What's got you so upset?" Anna asked me.

"Damon won't let me go upstairs to see Esther." I declared as she grabbed me in a ballroom.

"Well it's rude to turn down the dance." She stated.

"I do still need to find some way to get up there." I remarked.

"We can worry about that after we're done dancing." She pointed out as she moved me. Dancing with her felt different this time, probably because I knew that she liked me and I kind of liked her back. I noticed that we were the only same-sex pair and also that Caroline was dancing with Klaus.

I found out that part of the dance involved switched partners and I wound up in Stefan's arms.

"You're dancing." I declared.

"Mayor Lockwood made me." He stated. I wished that I could have seen that. "Damon looks like he's upset."

"I need your help getting Damon to back off so I can see Esther." I told him.

"What do you need me to do?" He asked. I had an idea. I whispered it into his ear. "I can do that."

I called Damon to one of the rooms upstairs. I didn't exactly want to do it, but he had practically left me with no choice.

"What did you need?" He asked. As soon as he came in, Stefan snapped his neck. Like I said, I felt bad for doing it.

"You need to go now." Stefan ordered. I decided not to waste any time and went down the hall. I actually had no idea what room she was in. One theory that I had was that Finn would be standing outside of the room.

"Mary." I heard Elijah's voice say. "I heard that my mother has requested a meeting with you."

"Yes." I confirmed. "Is there something wrong?"

"I have to say that I am bit confused that my mother was able to forgive Klaus so easily." He stated.

"Do you think that she's lying about it?" I questioned.

"I'm not completely sure that I can trust her." He declared. "Would it be okay to speak with you after the meeting is over?"

"Of course." I agreed before I resumed my quest to find his mother. Just as I suspected, I found Finn standing outside of a room.

"You're alone." He noted.

"As you requested." I declared.

"Come." He invited as he took me inside. She was inside and she had something on fire.

"It's just sage." Esther remarked. "It's a spell to prevent us from being heard. You may leave now Finn. You must have a million questions."

"Yeah, let's start with the obvious one. Why did you send Vicki Donovan to kill me?" I asked.

"The goal was to prevent Niklaus from using your blood to create more hybrids, but I have seen that it was a bad decision." She explained.

"Well then how can you be alive?" I followed. "Klaus ripped your heart out."

"When I died, the witch Ayanna preserved my body. She was a close friend of mine and a relative of your friend Bonnie."

"That must be why you needed Bonnie to break the spell." I stated.

"I drew power from the Bennett bloodline and it is what is keeping alive." She declared. "Nature punished me for turning my children into vampires by trapping me on the Other Side."

"I don't believe you." I argued. "Every supernatural creature goes to the Other Side and nature had nothing to do with it."

"There is still a way to undo the spell that I cast. I can reverse it and make them human again." She explained.

"You do want to kill Klaus, don't you?" I asked.

"No, I want to kill them all." She declared. "For now I need your blood."

"I don't want to kill them all." I replied.

"After I turned my children into vampires, they began to feed on the townspeople. Niklaus turned against me." She stated.

"That's not true either." I remarked. I couldn't believe that I was defending Klaus. "You're the one who turned against him. I'm not giving you my blood."

"My children believe that I am holding this ball to celebrate our reunion." She replied. "In truth, I have gathered them to perform a ritual. I need one drop of your blood to mix into the champagne which will link my children together."

Before I could stop her, she pricked me with a dagger. She even healed it so no one would notice.

"I'm not going to let you do this." I told her. "I'll tell them."

"You will not tell them anything." She declared. "I love my children, but this is necessary."

"I won't tell them." I murmured.

I went downstairs and was found by Elijah.

"How was my mother?" He asked.

"She was…" I started before I suddenly forgot what I was going to say. "…fine."

"So she has forgiven Klaus?" He asked. I just nodded.

Esther then called for a toast and everyone drank the liquor. As soon as Elijah walked away, everything came back to me. She had hexed me. I also felt like I needed to vomit because I had just drank blood. That woman was definitely not going to win Mother of the Year.

I walked around the house, hoping that the spell would wear off as people were starting to leave. Damon was right and I shouldn't have seen her. All of the Originals were going to die now and it was all my fault.

"Mary, did you get what you wanted?" Damon asked. He looked very pissed off.

"No." I declared.

"Well too bad because it's time to go." He declared as we pulled on my arm.

"Damon, we have to stop Esther." I stated. "I get why you're mad."

"I'm mad because I care about you and I thought we were friends." He replied.

"Maybe we shouldn't be." I remarked. "Wait, Damon, I did not mean that."

"I think that you did." He responded. "You don't want to be friends, then fine, we're not friends."

I couldn't see how the night could possibly get any worse. How was it possible for me to fuck up so badly.

I went home with Anna and Stefan met us at the house.

"So, Esther wants to kill her whole family." He commented. "I'm pretty sure that makes her the worst mother ever."

She probably was even worse than Isobel. Isobel may or may have cared about me.

"Wait, does that me that she wants to kill me too?" Anna asked in concern.

"I don't know. She just said her children." I explained. "Did you drink the champagne with my blood in it?"

"No, I spit it out because I hate champagne." She told me.

"We still need to stop her." I declared. "She made it so I couldn't tell them."

"We're not stopping her, Mary." Stefan remarked.

"I don't want to kill all of them. I just want to kill Klaus." I responded. "We can't trust someone like Esther. She's too much of a wildcard."

"They're collateral damage, Mary." Stefan argued. "As long as we kill Klaus, that's all that matters."

"That's easy for you to say." Anna pointed out. "It's not your family that's dying. You remember that you wouldn't let Damon die to kill Klaus."

"We're going to let Esther do her spell." Stefan declared as he walked out the door.

"I'm sorry." I apologized.

"Well I have no desire to see my grandmother now." Anna quipped. "Look Mary, there's nothing that you can do to make me love you less. We'll figure out a way to fix this. I promise."

So Esther is a lot more sinister, taking Mary's blood, and making her unable to tell Elijah. At least there's a sweet moment between our girls at the end. Please don't forget to review.


	15. Going to Run

When I woke up in the morning, I felt really bad for what I had said to Damon. I knew that I wanted to make things right. I got dressed in a purple plaid shirt and jeans. I decided that the best thing to do was to call him. I hoped he would answer because he hadn't answered any of my six calls the previous night.

"What?" He answered sleepily.

"I wanted to apologize for last night." I declared.

"Sorry, I've been busy." He responded.

"You need to stop being mad at me." I stated. It was not a time for him to be holding a grudge.

"I'm not mad." He remarked before hanging up. It sounded like he had a girl in his bed, but I was pretty sure that it wasn't Tina. I decided that I wasn't going to let him ignore me and headed to his house.

The door opened and Damon was there…with Rebekah, who definitely looked like she had gotten laid. The fact that Damon's shirt was off only supported the claim. She smiled smugly before she left. She wasn't my first choice for someone for Damon to hook up with, but she seemed to think I was mad.

"So she was not someone that I saw you sleeping with." I commented. "Did you get her to agree to not kill Elena by any chance?"

"We didn't really talk." He answered as I entered the house.

"You know you shouldn't keep doing self-destructive things every time your feelings get hurt." I commented.

"Maybe this had nothing to do with you." He countered.

"Well maybe you'd like to know that Esther is planning on killing all of her children, including your new bedmate." I explained.

"That's great. We'll finally be free of Klaus." He replied. Had the sex meant that little to him?

"Don't you care?" I asked.

"We've been trying to kill Klaus for a while and we don't need you to screw this up." He pointed out.

"But the rest of them don't deserve this." I argued.

"Damon's right." Stefan said as he walked into the room. "If this is the only way that we can kill Klaus, then this is what we have to do."

It was at least a little bit comforting that he actually seemed slightly conflicted about it. Damon didn't seem to care at all about the girl that he had just slept with.

I decided to storm out, slamming the door behind me. I went home and called Bonnie so she could practice the spell that Esther had used with the non-hearing. I wondered if I was still being affected by the spell preventing me from saying anything. Anna was outside the door to see if she could hear it.

"So, Damon just is having shameless one-night stands without having any sort of attachment." I remarked. "Is it working?"

"No, I heard your rant about Damon's sex life. I do wonder why it's any of your business." Anna replied as she opened the door.

"This is a difficult spell." Bonnie explained.

"Esther kept the sage burning and there was also smoke." I pointed out as Anna went back outside and closed the door.

"So, Esther came to talk to me and Abby this morning." Bonnie stated.

"Why are you letting me ramble about Damon?" I questioned. "She's a much bigger problem."

"She just wanted to thank us for releasing her and tell us that she's drawing power from our bloodline." Bonnie explained.

"Is there any way that you could possibly stop her from channeling you?" I questioned. Having her be less powerful would be very helpful.

"Even if we could, why would we want to?" She asked.

"Well Elijah found a way to save me and I owe him the same." I pointed out. "And I also don't have anything against Rebekah and I definitely don't want to kill Anna's dad."

"Okay the spell isn't working." Anna said as she popped in. "And she's right. If I could actually have a relationship with my dad, I want it."

"There's nothing that I can do, Mary." Bonnie replied. "By the end of the night, he'll be dead, they all will. It's a full moon. Esther is going to channel its power and she wants me and Abby to help her."

"You don't have to help her." I argued.

"There's nothing you can say to change my mind." She remarked.

I heard a knock at the door. Anna and I went down to answer it and it was Elijah.

"Mary, I was hoping that you would accompany me." He declared.

"Sure." I replied.

"I want to show you something." Elijah stated. Anna and I went out to my car and I drove to some place out in the woods for some reason. "I forgot how much I missed this land. Did you know that you know you're school was built over a Native village where I saw my first werewolf."

I didn't quite understand the point of the history lesson.

"Funnily enough, the hospital was where Annabelle was born." He added.

"What exactly is the point of this?" Anna asked.

"Below us is a cavern I used to play in as a boy." He explained. "It was nature's way of sheltering us from the savagery of the full moon."

"Well there are no werewolves here right now, so we don't have to worry about that." I pointed out.

"You know I fear that my mother may have hexed you." He stated. "You seemed dazed when I asked you about my mother."

"I wanted to tell you but I couldn't remember it." I said.

"What does she want?" He asked.

"She wants to kill you, all of you." Anna explained.

"I wish I could help." I said.

"You can." He replied before he suddenly broke Anna's neck and then stomped on the ground, causing us to fall through. It was a good thing that I fell on my bottom, but it still hurt.

I began to look around the tunnels, dragging Anna with me. I couldn't understand why he would want us down here. I saw a light and began to head toward it.

"Goin somewhere?" Rebekah asked as she blocked my path.

"What are we doing down here?" I questioned. "Is this another attempt to get me to tell you where Elena is?"

"No, but I do have plans." Rebekah replied. "You see my mother wants to kill us and if your friends don't manage to stop her in time, I will not only turn you into a vampire but erase all of your memories and compel you to kill them."

"And why is Anna here?" I questioned.

"I don't have any plans for her, but I guess I can compel her too." Rebekah replied. "I do need to do something about the vervain. How about I do this?"

She took a knife and slashed Anna's jugular. I felt like I was watching Sweeney Todd.

So we had a definitely problem. I hoped that they knew about it because I did not want to become a vampire like that and I definitely did not want to be compelled to kill my friends. I wondered if there was any possible way that I could reason with her. I supposed that I had time, but I didn't know how much. I knew that Esther would have to wait until the moon was full, so that gave…I wasn't sure. I really didn't know anything about astronomy. They didn't teach us that in school.

I decided that I would see if I could get my phone to work, but sure enough, it was a dead zone. I wasn't sure why I had gotten Sprint over ATT or Verizon. I wanted to at least Stefan know that was okay.

"You know I don't want to kill you." I explained. "I told your mother that I wouldn't help her, but she took my blood from me by force."

"You know I have better things to do with the potential last few hours of my life than to listen to you talk." She told me.

"I don't understand what I did to make you hate me so much." I explained. "I didn't even know that Elena wanted to dagger you and the only reason that I didn't take it out was that I thought that you would kill her."

"I don't hate you." She replied. "There's nothing personal here, but you seem to be the best mean to any end here."

At that point, Anna woke up with a groan.

"What happened?" She asked. "Why do I feel so weak?"

She looked down to see that her dress had blood stains on it.

"Did you bleed me out?" She inquired.

"I figured that it was the best way to get the vervain out of your system." Rebekah replied. "You know that you were really in the wrong place at the wrong time. Luckily, you two aren't on the list of people to be harmed right now. The bad news is that all of your friends might die if they can't stop my mother."

"How long do we have to stop her?" Anna asked.

"The deadline is at 8:30 because I need some time for Mary to transition before my mother starts the spell at 9:07." Rebekah replied.

"You can't turn her into a vampire." Anna protested.

"I'm pretty sure that I can unless thing ring protects her from such." Rebekah remarked as she grabbed my hand. She then slipped it off. "But just to be sure, let's get rid of it."

"Can I have it back if we succeed?" I requested. "It's a family heirloom and I didn't just want to get rid of it.

"Now why should I do that?" She challenged. "After all, you're the one who kept my mother's necklace from me."

"I had no idea that it was yours." I pointed out. "Stefan gave it to me."

"You know maybe I should send him a picture." Rebekah suggested. How was she getting service? "Better yet how about you two kiss? I'm sure that he would love to see that. Aren't two a thing now?"

"We're not together." Anna replied.

"Now why is that?" Rebekah questioned. "Is Mary still holding onto hope that the Stefan that she loves will take her back? Pretty soon, you won't have to worry about that anymore."

"Why are you so set on us failing?" I questioned. "Did you forget that you're going to die?"

"I told you to kiss." Rebekah replied. "_Go over and kiss her."_

Anna began to walk my way against her will and I prepared for it. Then suddenly, Rebekah's body began to turn gray and Anna snapped out of the trance that she had been put in.

"Okay, that was the first time that I've ever been compelled." She replied. "All I know is I wanted to kiss more than usual."

"How about we stop talking and start running?" I suggested.

"That's a good idea." She agreed as we began to run.

"We need to find the fissure that Elijah made." I replied.

"I don't know if I can jump that high." Anna stated. "She bled me out, which makes me weaker than normal. I'd have to feed."

"Then feed on me." I offered. "If you need your strength then drink my blood to get it."

"We still have to find out where we're going first." She stated as we continued to run. It seemed to be really easy to get lost in the tunnels.

We began to walk around some more before Anna perked up.

"We have a problem." She stated. "Rebekah's awake again."

"I have an idea. How about we split up?" I suggested. "Rebekah's more likely to follow after me and it'll give you somewhere to hide."

"I'm not leaving you." She responded.

"I'll be okay." I pointed out. "The worst that she's going to do to me is turn me into a vampire. She's not going to kill me."

"I don't want her to turn you into a vampire." She argued. "It needs to be either me or Stefan knows does it, no one else."

"Well how about I say that I'm confident that she won't be able to." I declared. "They're going to find a way to stop Esther. I don't know how, but they'll find it."

"Please be careful." She instructed.

I decided to hide in the cave with all of the drawings on it since vampires couldn't get in there. I was kind of terrified that we would fail because Anna was right. I wanted her or Stefan to turn me and I definitely didn't want it to be someone else's choice.

"Mary, come out, come out wherever you are." Rebekah called. "I'm not sure why I'm feeling under the weather, but no matter, I'm still ready to do this."

"Come and get me." I taunted.

She ran toward me only to be stopped by the barrier.

"What is this, you bitch?" She asked me.

"It's a vampire-free zone." I replied. "Sorry, but it looks like I'm safe in here and there's nothing that you can do about it."

"I happen to have a supply of gasoline and matches, so I can start a fire in there." She replied. That wasn't good. "And as soon as you come out, I'll force my blood down your throat and break that neck of yours."

Before anything else could happen, her phone rang.

"You want me to let her go?" The Original asked. "Fine, I'll do it. It looks like you're free to go."

I found Anna and gave her some of my blood so we could get back up to the surface. I couldn't help but wonder how they had done it.

"So you know I was trying to fight off the urge to kiss you." She told me. "I don't want to force myself on you. When we kissed, I knew that you wanted it as much as I did."

"Well I don't know what I want right now." I admitted. "Rebekah's right, I am holding out to the chance that Stefan and I can get back together. I'm just glad that we were successful today and that I didn't have to be turned."

"Well whenever you think that you're ready we can figure that out." She promised. "We should get home. I need to get rid of these clothes"

So Rebekah's plan was to turn Mary instead of killing her. Also Anna was along for the ride. Please don't forget to review.


	16. Going to Solve a Murder

It was morning and Matt had joined Anna and I on our running route.

"Are you two training for a marathon?" He huffed.

"You need to be able to keep up." I stated.

"You know you can't just outrun your problems." He said. Anna and I kept running. "I talked to Bonnie."

I stopped in my tracks when he said that.

"What did she say?" Anna asked. I wasn't expecting anything good. She probably hated us because it was my/our fault that her mom became a vampire.

"They're at her mom's." He explained. "Abby is going to complete the transition."

"Wow, she's really going to become a vampire." Anna commented.

"Caroline was going to help." He added.

"Is there anything that I can do?" I questioned. Would sending an apology note be appropriate?

"She said that she knows it wasn't your fault, Mary." Matt replied.

"Yeah, Rebekah kidnapped and threatened us." Anna remarked. "I would say it's pretty much entirely our fault. Not to mention, it was basically a choice of Mary or Abby becoming a vampire."

At that moment, my phone rang. It was Damon.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Ric's been arrested for the murders of Brian Walters and Bill Forbes." He explained.

"What?" I responded.

I went home and got dressed in a simple white tee and blue leather leggings. I didn't have a lot of time to focus on what I was wearing. We met Damon at the police station.

"Is he okay?" I asked.

"He's fine. The sheriff wants me to stay out of it." He explained.

"You're seriously not going to stay out of it, are you?" I asked.

"I don't have any better ideas." Damon pointed out.

"Damon, your best friend is in jail for murder." I reminded him. "You have to do something."

"Okay then I'll kill Dr. False Accusation." He suggested. I still didn't understand how she managed to do it. Had she sent hitmen to do the killings?

"No." I remarked.

"So, suddenly me staying out of it sounds like a good idea." He stated. "I could probably give Ric a harmonica to play."

"Now you're just being a douche." I commented.

"Well it looks like everything is back to normal." Anna quipped. I glared at her. "Sorry."

The main thing that sucked was that I couldn't even see Ric. I knew that he didn't do it. I wasn't sure why anyone would think that he did. Why would he randomly start killing people? He'd never killed anyone.

"So all of the Originals but Rebekah left town." Anna told me.

"Why didn't she go with them?" I asked.

"I don't know." She replied. "I think that despite what she did, I wouldn't classify her as evil. She was just trying to do the same thing that we were. She was only a little more motivated about it, okay maybe a lot more."

"I'm not going to hold it against her." I replied. "I have more important things to do than hate Rebekah."

"So what are you going to do about Alaric?" She questioned. "Please tell me that you have a plan."

"How are you at stealing keys?" I asked. She didn't respond. "That was a joke. No my plan is go see Dr. Fell and find out why she is framing him. I don't think compulsion will be on the table since she's probably on vervain. You think that he's innocent, don't you?"

"I think that you do and I'm willing to trust your judgment." She stated. "I think the easiest place to look for her would be at the hospital.

She wasn't there when we got there, so we decided to wait.

"So do we have any way to prove Ric didn't do this?" Anna asked.

"Well he was attacked." I pointed out.

"From a legal standpoint, it means nothing." She explained. "He could have made it look like he was to draw attention away from him. I'm not saying that he did, but that's what the sheriff might think."

"Well Brian Walters was killed on Caroline's birthday." I declared.

"Ric was still there when I went home." She told me. "We can't use that as evidence either. This is tough. We can place Meredith at the scene of Bill's death being that she was in the hospital at the time of death."

At that time, she arrived.

"I'm due in surgery, so whatever case you have to make against Alaric, make it quick." She told us.

"We're not here to make a case." I replied. "He didn't do it."

"How do you know?" She challenged. "You took in an alcoholic vampire hunter and you didn't even think to do a background check."

"I know he didn't." I stated.

"Well do you wanna know what I know?" Meredith challenged. "He was arrested for fighting four times before the age of 21 while at Duke. Your mother took out restraining orders against him twice, but she still married him, so I guess that says something about her character."

"That can't be true." Anna argued. "He didn't kill anyone."

"You are a thousand year old vampire. It shouldn't come as a shock to you that your guardian is a murderer." Meredith declared.

She then walked inside of the hospital and I couldn't believe it. Her case against him made it even more believable that he had done it, but he couldn't have done it. He had no motive. Wasn't motive the more important thing?

"What are we going to do now?" I asked.

"Well we have to see where Meredith got this information." Anna remarked. "I thought Damon said that Sheriff Forbes did a background check on him around the time that he first got here and it came back clean."

"Do we have the ability to do a background check of our own?" I asked.

"Those usually take time that we don't really have." She explained. "I think it would be possible to find out how Meredith got the information about him."

"Well it's not like you can just go into her apartment and steal it." I pointed out.

"You can." She argued. "I can get the door open and you can go inside. Or I could compel the building manager to let you cosign your name on the lease."

"It probably would be easier if you could come in as well." I agreed. It did seem like it was morally wrong to do, but considering that she had framed my stepfather for murder, we might have to break a few rules ourselves to get him out of jail. I just hoped that she wasn't right. "Wait do you think that there would be any security footage from the hospital?"

"The lights were out when you found Bill." She declared. "Chances are the murderer wouldn't show up on tape, if there was a camera in there at all."

"Alright, then let's go to the apartment." I declared. We headed to her building and went to the front desk.

"You're going to show me the lease for Meredith Fell's apartment." Anna compelled. The woman did as told as took out the paper. I took a pen and put my name on it, hoping it would work. I didn't get a key, but I couldn't help but wonder if I should have asked.

Anna unlocked the door and I stepped inside.

"You can come in." I replied. At that point, she walked inside. It actually worked. I couldn't believe it worked.

"So we just broke and entered." She commented as I closed the door. "You know we probably should figure out what we want to do soon,"

"Well I'd really like to have that discussion, but it seems like things can getting in the way of it." I pointed out. "Though, this is the first non-vampire-related problem in a while. So what are we looking for? I'd bet that the sheriff has already searched here."

"That's why we're looking in the places that she wouldn't search." She replied.

"When did you become such a good criminal?" I asked.

"I did it just for fun in the 40s." She explained. "I was like Dillinger and Bonnie and Clyde, except I never got caught. Besides, I wouldn't expect the sheriff's department to do a very good job especially if they failed that background check. I'm starting to think that they're just plain inept, but I digress."

I had never thought of it, but it seemed like she was right. I couldn't remember the last time that they had solved anything. There were ill-equipped to deal with vampires as well.

"We have to find the skeletons in the closet." She told me. "The best place to start looking is the closet."

We went inside and found that there was a secret compartment. Inside the compartment was a box full of papers. Specifically the files were on Brian Walters, Bill Forbes, and Alaric Saltzman.

"It looks like we've just hit the jackpot." She stated as we looked through it.

The box had pretty much everything that we needed to know about Ric. I wasn't sure how much of it was legal, but it kind of looked like she was obsessed with him.

"Do you think that this could reopen her as a suspect?" I asked.

"If I was a cop, I would be very interested in looking at her." She answered.

"It looks like we've also found something else." She declared as she pulled out a journal.

"Why does Meredith have one of my great grandfather's journals?" I questioned. I was trying to figure out what her motive was.

"So didn't the medical examiner say that the time of death was 1:00?" Anna asked.

"Yes." I replied. "Why?"

"Because this statement from the country coroner says the death occurred after 3:00."She told me. "I hear footsteps."

I put the journal in my bag, and the rest of my stuff back in the compartment before we closed the closet door. It felt kind of like we were playing seven minutes in heaven and I also thought of a few jokes about coming out of the closet. I heard her pick up her keys and prepared to exit, but Anna stopped me and the door opened to reveal Meredith Fell. There was nowhere to go.

She called the cops on us and we were officially arrested. There were people watching so Anna couldn't reveal her vampire abilities. It basically meant that we had no choice but to go to the police station with her.

"What were you two thinking?" She asked. "Also you can't go compelling people to get into people's apartments."

"But we found something that clears Alaric." I pointed out. "There was a document that proves that he didn't kill Brian Walters, which means he probably didn't kill Bill either."

"You mean this?" She questioned as she showed us the same form. How had she gotten that? "This is a letter correcting the error of the time of death for Brian Walters. Meredith received it today and showed it to me. She gave to me hours ago and apologized for accusing an innocent man."

"But why did she have a copy in a box in her closet?" Anna asked.

"I don't know, Anna, but it's not something that I can use." She replied. "Do you two realize how much I am putting on the line to protect you two?"

"We're sorry." I apologized. I was still confused about the whole situation. Why would Meredith want to let him go? Was she really obsessed with him like I thought she was?

"Just go." She ordered. "Alaric will be released as soon as this is authenticated."

We exited the police station.

"You know that was the first time that I've ever been arrested." She declared. "So do you still have the journal?"

"Yep." I replied as I took it out of my bag.

We passed by the Grill on the way home. There was Stefan and Damon and Rebekah and some woman with a bloody neck. Stefan's eyes were red and his lips were bloody.

"Forget this and leave." Damon compelled her.

"So what are you guys doing here?" I asked.

"We're just hanging out." Damon replied.

"Mary, we should get home." Anna stated before she began to pull me away.

"What the fuck was that?" I asked.

"I think Damon might have been trying to teach Stefan how to properly feed from people." Anna remarked. "It's something that we shouldn't be involved with because it was making me hungry. I supposed we should have just been grateful that things went better than expected.

"We did succeed tonight." I stated. "We proved Ric wasn't a murderer."

"Yeah, but we could have done it a lot better." She pointed out. "Being a spy doesn't seem like it's in any of our futures."

"We could possibly train some time." I joked as we went into the house. "So I wonder if I'll have to pay some of the rent on Meredith's apartment."

"Nah, Sheriff Forbes is probably replacing the lease." She replied.

"So I think I'm going to read this journal some before bed." I remarked. "Let me know when Alaric gets back."

I went and changed for bed before I heard the door. I put my robe on and headed downstairs where I gave him a hug.

"So I was gonna make some coffee." He stated. "I was probably also gonna have a shower."

"We probably won't be up much longer." I replied.

"You know the sheriff told me about what you two did today, and while I appreciate it, I don't want you girls getting in trouble because of me. I'm supposed to take care of you, not the other way around." Ric remarked. It was a little bit awkward.

"I think it should be a two-way street." Anna suggested.

"Well I'm supposed to be the responsible adult here, even if I suck at it." He said.

"Well, we wouldn't trade you for anyone but our previous guardians." I explained. "You're third on both of our lists and that is pretty good."

"Deal." He said with a laugh. "So what are you reading?"

"It's an old family journal." I explained. "I thought it was Jonathan's, but it turns out it was his granddaughter Samantha's."

"Samantha Gilbert." Anna replied. "Oh crap. I didn't think about this, but I think that you might have done it."

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"In 1922, I volunteered at an asylum." Anna explained. "One of the patients was Samantha Gilbert, a crazy woman who had murdered several people in 1912. She had a ring just like the one that you're wearing and she said that she had died before. I don't think it's a coincidence."

At that moment, Meredith appeared at the door. She apparently thought the same thing. This was not good.

So Anna knew Samantha Gilbert and made the connection. Also Mary and Anna wound up in the closet together. Make any jokes you want to about that. Please don't forget to review.


	17. Going to Stop a Killer

Anna and I were in the hospital while Dr. Fell gave a CAT scan to Alaric. I was pretty sure that she had gotten a new lease. I wore a pastel blue knee-length, long-sleeved dress.

"So what are you looking for?" I asked.

"A tumor, vascular anomaly: if it's medical, I can treat it." She explained.

"What if it's not?" Anna asked.

"Then we'll figure something out." She promised. This was my fault. Isobel had gotten the ring from my father and given it to him. Okay, blaming myself for that was probably a bit of a stretch, but I probably was the reason that he kept dying so much, not to mention I gave it back to him.

"Why are you doing this if you know he killed people?" I questioned.

"Because I'm a doctor. I hate to see people hurt by things they can't control." She answered. "I think above all, I just want to help him."

After the procedure was done, we met him in his room.

"So Dr. Fell didn't find anything wrong." I explained to him.

"Of course she didn't because nothing is wrong! I'm not killing people!" He shouted. "Or I am and I've gone insane and it's all because of this ring. I don't want it anymore. Take it."

He slid it across the table and I put it in my purse.

"I'll call Bonnie." I replied. "The rings were made by a Bennett witch and maybe she can figure out how to fix it."

"Are you ready to ditch this house of horrors?" Damon asked as he walked in. It wasn't really the time for jokes. "Wow, you look terrible."

"Let me go check out." He stated.

We went home before going to the boarding house. Damon said that he had a book on Samantha Gilbert. I didn't understand why you would write a book about a mentally unstable serial killer…actually that sounded like a compelling character.

Anna and I walked into the house where we found Stefan. He had a glass of blood in front of him. It looked full.

"I'm sorry. Damon told me that no one would be home." I declared.

"I just got home." He remarked.

"We were just here because Damon said that you had a book on Samantha Gilbert." Anna stated.

"I thought you were in the asylum." He said to her. "Wouldn't you know all of this stuff?"

"I quit because she kept talking about vampires and didn't want to be found out." Anna explained.

"Okay, well then I have it." He said before he got the book of the table and gave it to me.

"Are you okay?" I asked him.

"Yeah." He answered. "Is that all you need?"

"Yes." I replied. It was really awkward.

"Can I have some blood?" Anna asked. I supposed that was one way to break the tension.

"Help yourself." He declared before she went to their storage area. "You don't have to read that you know. I could tell you about it. After she went to the asylum, she tried to give herself a lobotomy with a sewing needle and bled to death on the floor. If the same thing is happening to Alaric, there's nothing you can do."

"Well Samantha didn't have a witch to possibly help her." I argued.

The only problem was that Bonnie returning any of my calls. I was pretty sure that she was still mad at me. I decided to call Caroline.

"Hey." She replied.

"Bonnie hasn't been answering any of my calls and I really need to talk to her." I explained.

"Well she's still mad at you." Caroline pointed out.

"I understand that but we have a situation." I stated. "Alaric's developed this alternate personality from dying too many times we need Bonnie to see if we can find out how to stop it."

I then went downstairs to find Alaric going through his arrest records with Dr. Fell.

"This guy was just a douche." He stated. "Everyone needs to find a way to deal with their dark side. Some people meditate. I became a vampire hunter. Listen there's something that's not in these reports that I need to tell you. Your cousin Logan, I'm the one who killed him."

"I'm going to leave the judgment to other people." She explained. "Though, I do wonder why you haven't drove a stake through Damon's heart yet."

"He tried that but Damon drove it through his lung instead." I answered. "That was what started this ring stuff: me being angry enough to think I could take on a vampire."

"Well, we wouldn't have been able to save Stefan from that house without you." I pointed out. "I don't want to think that this changes my opinion. You are still a good person and don't forget it."

I decided to wait by the phone to see if Bonnie would call me back. I really wanted to make him better, especially since any time that he fell asleep he could turn into a murderous psychopath.

Bonnie finally called me after an hour.

"Hi." I answered.

"So I talked to Abby about the problem and she thinks that she might know a solution. It's similar to witches that get obsessed with dark magic. There are these herbs that I can use to suppress the alternate personality. I will be there as soon as I can."

"Bonnie, can I please say that I'm sorry?" I requested.

"We don't have time for any of that now, Mary." She remarked. "There is one more thing. I'm going to need something personal of his. It has be something that he wore before the ring."

"Okay, I'll get it." I promised.

I then went out to the kitchen where the two of them were. Anna joined me not long after.

"So Bonnie said that she needs something of yours that you wore before you ring." I explained.

"My wedding ring would work." Ric replied as he got up. "It's in the apartment."

"You're not going anywhere." Dr. Fell replied as she sat him back down. "Let Mary and Anna handle it."

"It's in a medicine bottle in the kitchen drawer." He explained. "I have something that I need to give you before you go."

"What is it?" I asked.

"This is a list of my bank passwords, credit information, and how to contact my parents." He stated as he handed me a sheet of paper.

"Why are you giving this to us?" Anna questioned.

"I just want to insure that you girls and Elena will be taken care of in case this all goes south." He remarked.

"You can keep it because you're going to get through this." I assured him. "Trust me."

From there, we headed out to my car and began to drive towards his apartment.

"You know there is a chance that we might have to kill him." She pointed out.

"I don't want to think like that right now." I declared. "I want to do this thing with Bonnie and see if she can deal with him. I mean she's usually come through for us before and even though we don't have any other witches to turn to, I have faith in Bonnie."

"You know I am jealous of your optimism." She admitted.

"Well Stefan's the one that brought it out." I stated.

"So I guess you're not really considering anything with me." She remarked.

"Look, I haven't had any time to think about it." I said. "If I got a moment to settle down and think about how I really feel, I would, but I haven't. I don't know if I can be emotionally to someone right now and that includes both you and Stefan. What I'm feeling is confusing and I just wanna help Ric."

"Okay, that was all that I needed to hear." She responded. "Am I even going to be able to get in there?"

"Technically, he doesn't own the place." I explained. "Damon compelled the building manager not to sell the apartment to anyone. Vampires can go inside without being invited, but all of his stuff that he didn't move to the house is still there."

"So basically he is using it as a storage unit?" She replied.

"I guess you could say that." I agreed as we arrived at the complex. We began to climb the steps and I found Stefan. "What are you doing here?"

"I went by the house, but Alaric said that you had come here." He answered.

"Well I'm kind of pressed for time right now so I don't have a lot of time to talk." I stated as I opened the door and we went inside.

"I did some more digging on Samantha Gilbert." He stated. "It turns that she killed two people while in the asylum: a nurse and an orderly."

"I'm definitely glad that I left when I did." Anna commented.

"I don't see how that is relevant." I remarked. "She was crazy. We already knew that."

"You don't understand. She was on suicide watch, which meant that she wasn't allowed to any jewelry." Stefan clarified.

"So you're saying that the bad personality can come out even if Alaric's not wearing the ring?" I asked.

"Yes, so whatever you're going to do with Bonnie, you need to make sure to do it fast." He replied.

"Guys you need to come over here." Anna stated. She was holding a manila envelope. "This place is Mr. Hyde's well…hideout."

I opened the envelope and found a list of council members. I never knew that there were so many members. Some of them had their names crossed out. Bill Forbes and Brian Walters were among the crossed-out names.

"I think we just found a list of potential victims." I declared. I also found something else. It was basically a letter to Elena telling her that she needs to continue his crusade if he is killed and that the council needed to be cleansed before they could move on with the next phase. "This is not good."

"We need to find the ring and get out of here." Anna replied. "I don't know if you noticed but Meredith's name is on it."

I began to search through the drawers and I found a small aspirin bottle. I opened it up and there was the wedding ring. I really hoped that everything would be fine when we got back home. The good thing was it was too early for him to fall asleep. Maybe that would watch a movie together. I doubted that they would get into anything intimate because it seemed like it would be kind of dangerous. We went back out to my car and I told Stefan to get in the back because I still wasn't going to let him drive me anywhere.

The three of us slowly crept into the house. It was quiet and I didn't see either of them immediately. All of the lights were out which didn't seem like a good sign. I had a feeling that Alaric was who he should have been.

"Go hide." I told Stefan.

Stefan did as told and the two of us began to look around. It was at that moment that Alaric came downstairs. He was cleaning off his hand.

"Hey." He greeted us.

"Where's Meredith?" Anna asked. She was sniffing the air, possibly smelling blood.

"She had to go to the hospital." He answered. It seemed like a lie. "Did Stefan find you?"

"No." I lied.

"Well I guess it's not important." He stated. There was definitely something different about him. "Did you get my ring?"

"We couldn't find it." Anna replied. "So what happened?"

"I dropped a coffee cup and cut my trying to clean it up." He replied with a chuckle. Anna looked at him and prepared to make a move and he realized that we knew who he was, but Stefan came from behind and began to choke him until he lost consciousness.

"We need to find Dr. Fell." I replied as I ran upstairs.

"There's a lot of blood up there." Anna stated. I followed her to the bathroom where Meredith was bleeding heavily. Anna rushed over to her. "She's still alive. I can save her."

She bit into her wrist and put into it the doctor's mouth and got her to swallow.

Bonnie arrived late at night and cast the spell. She said that we would be able to go to sleep and not having to worry about him coming out and trying to kill us. I knew that she could do it.

We went downstairs and waited for him to wake up.

"What did I do?" He asked. "Where's Meredith?"

"She's fine." I assured him. "Bonnie cast the spell, but she said that you need to drink some of these herbs every four hours. They're like a binding agent."

"Basically they're your medication." Anna quipped.

"I told you that everything would be alright." I stated.

I decided that there was something else that I needed to do. I just wanted to make sure that she was okay. I wasn't going to go into specifics, but I needed to talk her.

"Hello?" She answered.

"Hey Stranger." I greeted her.

"What's up?" She questioned.

"Nothing, I just wanted to hear your voice." I explained. "So have you been feeling any different lately since moving there?"

"No, I've been mostly the same." She told me. "Well I have been having more fun. They have a dog. It's too bad that we couldn't have one growing up because Mom was allergic."

"Well I've glad that you're liking it there." I remarked.

"You know can we continue this conversation later because I was about to meet with some friends." She stated. That made me smile.

"Yes, you should go out and have fun and do the kinds of things that you can't do here." I instructed. Hearing that she was enjoying made me feel a lot better about sending her away. She was doing the things that I wanted her to do.

"So how's Elena?" Anna asked.

"She's good." I said. "So I'm going to need a few days to sort this out, but I'll let you know as soon as I have an answer."

"Take all of the time that you need." She replied. "I could say that I want you to be happy, but I really hope that you pick me."

Please don't forget to review.


	18. Going to Kill An Original

Anna and I were delivering some coffee to Ric's apartment where he was with Damon for some reason. I wore a sweater that alternated between black, white, and grey and silver leather pants with tan Converse as well as a single blue streak in my hair at Anna's suggestion. I knocked on the door and Damon answered it.

"Morning." He remarked.

"How's Ric?" I asked.

"He's fine but he just got out of the shower so you girls can't see him." Damon answered.

"So does that mean that last night went okay?" Anna questioned. Sheriff Forbes didn't tell me about any murders.

"Yes, so you can go." He replied. "He is Alaric and no one else so you can leave."

"Why are you so eager for us to leave?" I responded.

"Because I don't need you here." He remarked. I sighed. Was he mad at me for some reason?

"Well just give him this coffee and donuts." I stated as I handed them to him and we walked away.

In other news, Abby had abandoned Bonnie again. It was because she attacked Jamie. I couldn't judge her for it because I wasn't there and I was not a vampire so I didn't know what it was like.

It wasn't very long before Anna and I both got texts from Stefan saying to meet in the woods. We came across Caroline on the way and I decided that it was probably a good time to tell her what happened.

"Alaric Saltzman killed my father?" She responded in disbelief.

"I know it's kind of messed up but these herbs that Bonnie's giving him seem to be helping." I explained.

"That doesn't really make me feel any better." Caroline remarked.

"Well it's not his fault because he was sick." Anna argued. "He couldn't control himself."

At that point, Matt showed up. It seemed like Stefan had texted him too. Why had he done that?

"Where's Bonnie?" Stefan asked. "I texted her too."

"Bonnie's mom bailed on her so we're leaving her out of this." Caroline explained. He didn't look that happy.

"What are we doing here?" Matt inquired.

"We found some more white oak." Damon answered.

"So you have a weapon that can kill an Original?" I asked.

"Nope." Stefan replied as he dropped a duffel bag full of stakes on the ground. I couldn't help but wonder when he had time to make them. "We all do. Klaus has always been one step ahead of us, but now we have the advantage. We're all armed and they are all linked, meaning we only have to kill one of them."

"I thought we established that we weren't going to kill them all." Anna replied.

"We never agreed to that." Damon stated. He then grabbed me. "Scenario #1: you get to play Klaus."

"Rebekah is our target." Stefan explained. "Do that we need to keep Klaus separate and occupied which means we need to distract him and do that we will need some help."

"I'm coming." Caroline muttered. She shot me some flirty looks.

"We'll use the quarterback to distract Rebekah and then we'll stab her." Damon replied.

"I'm not doing this." Anna declared. "I only want to kill Klaus. My family is not collateral damage."

"We will not pity them." Stefan declared.

"Can we just kill Klaus?" I asked. "There still isn't any reason for the rest of them to die."

"We're going to kill them the first chance that we get." Damon replied. "There are 12 stakes, 12 chances to kill."

I sighed because it appeared that we had been outvoted. To make matters worse, our ability to stop anyone from doing so was hampered by the fact that we had to work.

Before work, we went to the square. Caroline was trying to call Bonnie.

"Mr. Saltzman was the most normal guy in town." Matt commented.

"No that's you." I pointed out.

"Is it weird that Bonnie isn't returning my calls?" Caroline asked.

"Probably." Anna replied.

"Is it weird that Klaus's brother is in the middle of town square?" Matt questioned. I looked and saw Finn with a trampy redhead.

"I thought that Finn left town." I remarked. Next to Klaus, he was probably the only Original that I wanted to kill, but I didn't want to do it unless they weren't linked. I couldn't help but wonder if I could get Bonnie to unlink them. "So Finn is here. He's with some girl and he looks happy to be alive."

"Sage" Stefan remarked. "Don't do anything until I get there."

What could we do? We couldn't just murder someone in town square.

I had to start my shift before he got there, so he figured that the best thing to do would be to come into the restaurant. I took him into the bathroom so we could talk with Finn and Sage possibly hearing us.

"So we have a slight problem." Stefan remarked. "Rebekah kidnapped Damon today."

"Well we need to abort the mission and go and rescue him." I stated.

"No, if we kill Finn, Rebekah will be killed anyway." He argued. From my understanding, Damon had slept with her and then used her to get information about the white oak. I wished people would stop treating her like dirt. "The plan is see Original, kill Original."

"Okay, then you're going to have to do it without me." I told him.

I didn't know how I could be with someone who was willing to kill four other people just to kill one guy. I understand that Klaus needed to die, but I didn't like the whole guilt by association thing. The Originals were not all equal and they shouldn't have been treated as such.

While I was involved, I did see what went on. Stefan gave Matt some vervain to put into the drinks that he was going to give to Finn and Sage. I saw the two of them headed to the back and I headed out with Anna to see if there was anything that I could do to try to stop them, but I was too late as I noticed that Matt successfully stabbed him with the stake and he lit afire just like Mikael had.

So we basically had a big problem. All of the Originals were going to die when we just needed Klaus to do so. I wished that I had never gone to meet Esther because then she never would have been able to link them. It was basically all my fault that they were going to die and it looked like I would have to live with the guilt of all that. I decided that the best thing that I could do was have Anna compel the manager to let us go home early. I would need to comfort Anna over the loss of her father, even though we didn't have any actual confirmation that he was dead. We didn't have actual confirmation that any of them were dead.

We decided to go back to the boarding house. I realized that unless we knew that the other Originals were dead, it wouldn't be right of me to give Stefan the scolding that I was planning to. Damon wasn't there, only Caroline.

"How's Alaric?" I asked.

"He's fine. He went home." She replied. "Did you kill Finn?"

"Unfortunately, yes." Anna replied. "My father is going to die without me getting a chance to know him."

I gave her a hug.

"We don't know that yet." I tried to comfort her.

"We won't find out that it worked until we see Klaus's dead body." Stefan added. Suddenly my phone rang. It was Bonnie.

"I'm surprised that you're talking to me." I told her. I figured that she was still mad at me for her mom.

"Klaus has Damon." She remarked.

"But Klaus should be dead." I replied. It seemed to be good news if he was because that would mean that Kol was still alive. "We killed Finn. They were supposed to die."

"He forced me to unlink them." She explained. "He threatened Elena and my mom."

"Where are they?" I questioned. I was glad that Finn's death didn't come with any repercussions, because it meant that I didn't need to feel guilty about it.

"They're at Klaus's mansion." Bonnie replied. She seemed to be crying. So, they were at the obvious place. "I have to go. I have to go."

"Maybe I should go and try to get Damon free." I stated. "I'll take one of the stakes with me in case I need it."

"There's no way that you can kill Klaus." Stefan argued.

"I might be able to do it if I can get a sneak attack in." I remarked. "Klaus will definitely kill you. He could bite you before you even got the chance to attack."

"Klaus does not get to survive this." Stefan stated. "He can't win."

Suddenly, the door flew open and Sage and some other vampire came in. Anna stood in front of me, but she threw her to the ground.

"I'm not here for you. I'm here for him." She said looking at Stefan. Suddenly, her nose began to bleed and she started to cough.

"Troy, help me. I don't know what's happening." Sage cried before she and Troy fell over and began to turn grey.

"What the fuck?" Anna asked. "Did they just die?"

"That was unexpected." I commented. I seriously had no idea how it happened. The Originals were supposed to be linked to each other. Had Bonnie's spell linked them to other vampires instead?

We went to the living room to try to figure out what happened.

"So Sage and Troy died with an hour of Finn." Caroline declared.

"Do we have any idea why?" I asked.

"Could it be that Sage died of a broken heart?" Caroline suggested.

"I'm pretty sure that can't happen to vampires." I remarked. "That also wouldn't explain Troy's death."

"It's the blood: the bloodline." Stefan declared. "Finn turned Sage and Sage turned Troy. They're all part of the same vampire bloodline."

"So now you're saying that when an Original dies, that every vampire from their bloodline dies with them?" I responded. "Well this really decreases our chances of killing Klaus. Also I think I owe Bonnie a giant thank you basket because she just saved the lives of every vampire on the planet."

"Well we need to rescue Damon right now." Stefan replied. We couldn't kill Klaus until we certain there wouldn't be consequences.

Stefan gathered some stakes and went to go get his brother. Meanwhile, Anna and Caroline went to get rid of Sage and Troy. After a few minutes, they came back.

"So the bodies are buried." Anna replied. "Now we need to figure out this sire stuff. Kol turned me so we know he is off limits."

"Well I was turned with Damon's blood and he and Stefan were turned by Katherine." Caroline explained. "Katherine was turned by Rose and that's as far back as we can go."

"We need to find a way to find out who turned Rose." I pointed out.

I then noticed a look of horror on Caroline's face.

"Mary, even if Klaus didn't generate any of our bloodlines, we know for a fact that there is one vampire that is linked to him." She stated. "If Klaus dies, so does Tyler."

It was definitely an unfavorable outcome but I was pretty sure that it was one that neither Stefan nor Damon would care about. They didn't really like Tyler and they would probably be okay with letting him die so we could kill Klaus. I couldn't help but wonder how Tyler would feel about it. There was a chance that he would be willing to die to rid the world of Klaus. We would have to discuss it with him if he ever returned to town.

"Who knows maybe Tyler would rather die than continue being sired to Klaus." Anna suggested.

After about an hour, the two of them returned. Damon immediately went upstairs to take a bath. It wasn't hard to believe that he needed one. Anna had gone home because she was tired or something.

"So we need to get Elena back." I announced to Stefan. "If Klaus sent someone after her, she'd probably just be safer here. The three of us can bring her back tomorrow."

"I'm not going." Stefan replied. "I think that you two have feelings for each other and you need to figure them out. A vacation would probably be the perfect opportunity"

He was probably right. Well, he was definitely right about my feelings for Anna, but I needed to take the time to explore them. It was like I kept putting it off. I did need to know if I really wanted to be with Anna or if I wanted to be with Stefan and the only way to know that would be to explore what a relationship with Anna would actually be like and compare it to the one that I had had with Stefan. I needed to see who I loved more or if I loved either of them at all.

I went home to Anna. If I was with her, I'd at least know that every night I could come home to my love in bed every night.

"So I found out a way that we can find out who out sired Rose." She told me. "We can go to Denver and ask Elena if she can see Rose's ghost."

"That's a great idea." I replied. I decided that it would be a good idea not to tell Anna about what Stefan had told me. I did think that the most important thing was getting Elena back and we could resolve everything else afterwards.

At that point, Ric came into the house. He and Damon had been gathering the remaining stakes. Stefan had tried to give eight of them to Klaus but he had compelled Damon to give him the right number.

"What's wrong?" I asked him.

"We have a bit of a problem." He explained. "We only found 10 of the stakes. The one that was missing was the one that Damon gave to me. The only problem is I don't know where I put because I don't think I was the one who hid it."

"That's not good." I stated.

So Anna and Mary are going to Denver together to get Anna back and Alaric hid the stake in a place that only his other self knows. Please don't forget to review.


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